科學史詮釋的辯論：西方或是東方？

2020-12-02 - 2020-12-02

科學史詮釋的辯論：西方或是東方？
A Debate on the History of Mathematics:  The West or the East?
 
日期｜109.12.02 14:00-17:00
Date: December 2,2020 14:00-17:00
地點｜交通大學人社二館106A教室
Venue: Room 106A, Humanities Building 2, NCTU
 
主持人/評論人｜朱元鴻教授（交通大學社文所教授）
Host / Discussants｜Yuan-Horng Chu, Professor, Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, NCTU
 
講者｜凃子謙 （布里斯托爾大學講師）
Speaker｜Tzuchien Tho, Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol

時序錯置的辯護：哲學和科學史中的語境主義與推測論述
　 　 ‘’A Defense of Anachronism: Contextualism and Speculation in the History of Philosophy and Science’’
 近幾十年來，科學史和哲學史領域的方法論發生了非常深刻的革命。近年來語境主義(contextualism)已成為占主導地位的方法，這種觀點認為哲學和科學歷史發展只能在其時間範圍內具有意義，而所有意義只能在互聯的言語行為 (speech act) 中產生。因此所有歷史文件的考察都務必建立在這種言語行為的情境之上.當然語境主義所施加的嚴格規範為這些領域提供了一些新的嚴格性，並為挑戰以前的學術提供了觀點。
但是，語境主義涉及一種循環邏輯。話語的含義需要的是互聯的言語行為，但是語境的建立原本就需要的是一組已經鑑定為歷史性的言語行為. 在某些情況下可以達到此標準所規定的經驗嚴謹性似乎是合理的，但很顯然，大多數的歷史工作都無法逃脫這種循環。
透過分析一些示例的循環邏輯, 我們試著辯護語境主義最主要的禁忌: 時序錯置推測的至關重要性。這種對歷史錯誤的辯護也將有助於說明歷史學科能夠超越一種古物好奇心的能力與重要性。
 
A defense of anachronism: contextualism and speculation in the history of philosophy and science
 
In the last few decades, the fields of the history of science and history of philosophy has undergone a very profound revolution. Contextualism, the view that philosophical and scientific statements can only have meaning within the context of its time, nested in the web of other speech acts, has emerged as the dominant methodology. The strict norms imposed by contextualism has provided some new rigor in these fields and has provided a perspective to challenge previous scholarship.
 
However, contextualism involves a circularity. What is the meaning of an utterance requires the context, but the context is nothing but an interpretation of a sum of historiographically significant utterances. It is plausible that some cases can rise to the empirical rigor set out by this standard but it is clear that most historical work would fail to escape the circle.
 
By examining this circularity with some test cases, I argue that contextualism highlights the crucial importance of its main taboo, that of anachronistic speculation. This defence of anachronism will also serve to illustrate an often overlooked importance of these historical disciplines beyond that of antiquarian curiosity.

Bio:
Tzuchien Tho is a philosopher and historian of science. He is currently lecturer at the University of Bristol. Previously, he has been affiliated with the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht (NL), the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (Rue D’Ulm), the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, the Institute for Research in the Humanities (University of Bucharest) and the University of Milan.
He is currently working on a research project on causality in 18th century physics, focusing on the development of analytical mechanics. He is also currently working on issues related to Badiou’s mathematical ontology, the philosophy of algebra, Leibniz reception in the 20th century, and the critique of contextualism as historical methodology. 
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/school-of-arts/people/tzu-chien-c-tho/index.html
 
講者｜博佳佳Charlotte-V. Pollet（交通大學通識中心副教授）
Speaker｜Associate professor, Center for General Education, NCTU
　　　語境與證據：關於古代數學史的辯論
　　　‘’The Context and the Proof: the Current Debate in History of Ancient Mathematics’’
 
There are only seventeen mathematical books composed prior to Yuan dynasty available now in our libraries. There is almost no information about their authors, their mode of composition and their readership. It is often considered that contextual elements contribute to maximize the understanding of text, however, here; one of the task of historians of mathematics written in Chinese language is to make these texts speak about their context. Those texts contains mainly algorithms and problems that look at first sight practical. What can a list of operation and problem teach us about context? Can we interpret an algorithm? And how?
Because of the lack of context and because of their algorithmic shape, Chinese texts were excluded from the world history of mathematics. They are a mere chapter in history books left on an exotic “nonwestern” bookshelf.  The absence of axiomatic-deductive style of reasoning lead some historians to believe that there is no proof and no sense of generality in mathematics from China, and that those ancient books are “just” practical recipes. Are mathematics always corresponding to the axiomatic-deductive style? That is currently one of the main debate among historians of ancient mathematics.
To illustrate the debate, this presentation is going to introduce problems from the 益古演段 written by 李冶 in 1259. We will see a how a list of problems convey mathematical meaning, how proof, generality can have different modes of expression, and that mathematical style cannot be reduced to axiomatic-deductive style.

Bio:
Charlotte Pollet is associate professor in National Chiao-Tung University (Taiwan). She received her dual Ph.D from Paris 7 University and National Taiwan Normal University in history and didactic of mathematics. As an educational specialist, she works on the development and promotion of new philosophical practices in Taiwan. She recently launched the yearly event ‘the philosophy week’ and founded an NGO ‘PhiloZokids’. As historian of sciences, her research interests concern the transmission and elaboration of mathematical objects and procedures in Asia. She investigates pre-modern mathematical texts written in Chinese or Sanskrit and their historiography. She is the author of “The Empty and the Full: Li Ye and the Way of Mathematics” (World Scientific).
https://sshncptaiwan.web.nctu.edu.tw/
 
*英文演講（中文重點逐步口譯） Lecture in English (Chinese Consecutive Interpreting Interpretation provided)

*參加者請配戴口罩並簽到　 Please wear a mask and sign in
 
共同主辦｜國立交通大學文化研究國際中心、國立交通大學社會與文化研究所
經費來源｜高等教育深耕計畫─特色領域研究中心計畫：「衝突、正義、解殖｜亞際社會批判研究」、國立交通大學社會與文化研究所

 

 

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