The philosopher-scientist is a great scientist and a great philosopher. Because of their own unique advantages, they have naturally become the setters of signposts in the history of human thought. At present, on the mainland, it is very necessary to train and cultivate our own philosopher-scientists.
The philosopher-scientist is first and foremost a great scientist and at the same time a great philosopher – a great man in the form of a second term. At the beginning of the 1990s, I studied the philosopher-scientists of Mach, Poincarre, Dieng, Ostwald, Pearson, and Einstein on the basis of the study of many philosopher-scientists, such as Mach, Poincarre, Dion, Ostwald, Pearson, and Einstein. The multifaceted nature of the human mind will not be brought into play until scientists have shown a way to deal with structures that are different from those that ancient traditions have trained our minds to take for granted. On the road to philosophical understanding, scientists are signposters. Under the inspiration, it was clearly put forward that "philosopher-scientists are the setters of signposts in the history of human thought". Then, I published a number of papers on the significance of philosopher-scientists, the ideological achievements, thinking characteristics, and historical status of philosopher-scientists, and the phenomenon and quality education of philosopher-scientists. He edited three volumes of the "Philosopher and Scientist Series", and between 1994 and 1999, 18 books were published by Fujian Education Press: "The Search for a Harmonious World - Bohr", "Listen to the Music of Heaven - Kepler", "The Generalist's Swan Song - Poincaré", "Exploring the Life of Mathematics - Hilbert", "The Splendor of Reason - Ostwald", "If in the Quantum Kingdom - Schrödinger", "The Golden Apple That Causes Strife - Kantor", "The Wandering of the Great Mind - Mach", "The Heresy Road to the Information World - Wiener", "Exploring the Continent of the Heart - Freud", "Towards Eternity - Dieng", "Reverie of the Great Lonely Man" - Albert Einstein", "To the Depths of the Human Mind – Born", "The Web of Ideas – Newton", "Beyond the Ages – Leibniz", "Born for Unity – Helmholtz", "Beyond Boundaries – Heisenberg", "Philosophical Meditations – Gödel". At that time, I did not have a detailed discussion of my proposition, and now I plan to make up for this shortcoming.
In the history of human thought, whether it is an individual or an event that sets ideological signposts, there are indeed only a handful of them. It seems that these signposts are basically set up by philosopher-scientists. Copernicus's "Theory of the Movement of the Celestial Sphere" put forward the heliocentric theory, which was a groundbreaking move that suddenly subverted the geocentric theory that had been entrenched in the minds of the world for a long time, and revolutionized the superficial intuition and deep consciousness of human beings, and dealt a fatal blow to the classical authoritative classics, dogmas, and the anthropocentrism of religion. Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" organically unifies the motion of the stars in the sky and the motion of the earthly objects, reveals the regularity and harmony of the universe, and makes the chaotic and completely different mechanical movements in people's eyes unified and orderly in their minds. What a great thinker, what a triumph of great minds! You must know that Newton's great theoretical contribution is the greatest exaltation of the human rational spirit - although the human body is very small, the human mind can encompass the entire universe and comprehend the mysterious harmony of the universe. Darwin's "The Origin of Species" revealed the laws of evolution in the biological world, which not only dealt a heavy blow to religious creationism and secular teleology, but also had a decisive and immeasurable impact on the way of thinking and the development of various disciplines. In the 20th century, philosophers and scientists overcame obstacles and forged ahead bravely, setting two eye-catching ideological signposts for mankind. The first is that Einstein, after years of painstaking exploration, single-handedly built a beautiful edifice of relativity, completely subverting mankind's view of time and space and outlining a new picture of the universe. Second, with the unremitting efforts of a group of quantum physicists such as Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Born, de Broglie, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Jordan, Dirac, etc., the grand theory of quantum mechanics stands majestically, giving people a new view of matter and cause and effect. Needless to say, there are many more similar examples, but the above examples are enough to illustrate the problem.
It is not difficult to see that philosopher-scientists are not only great scientists, but also great philosophers. Some of them also have unique philosophical creations and far-reaching intellectual influences. Not to mention the quasi-philosophers of the pre-scientific era (Aristotle, the natural philosopher of ancient Greece and the master of ancient knowledge) and the quasi-philosophers of the Middle Ages, since the modern scientific revolution (Copernicus-Newton Revolution), such as Pascal, Descartes, Leibniz, the French Encyclopédie, and many German scientists in the late 19th century, such as Kirchhoff, Helmholtz, Boltzmann, Hertz, Riemann, etc., have their own philosophical ideas and philosophical creations. In the 20th century, Poincarre's convention theory, Dion's holism, Ostwald's energy theory, Russell's mathematical philosophy, Whitehead's process philosophy, Bohr's complementary philosophy, Bridgman's operation theory, etc., are all philosophical originality and philosophical masterpieces of philosopher-scientists. Albert Einstein, the standard-bearer of the scientific revolution in the 20th century, was a veritable "philosophical elephant". He organically and harmoniously integrated the five ideological elements of moderate empiricism, scientific rationality, basic convention theory, meaning holism, and programmatic realism that he innovated or created, and formed a pluralistic tension philosophy or pluralistic tensionalism with rich connotation, extensive extension, unity of opposites, proper harmony, and exquisite harmony, which is worthy of being a "wonderful" hybrid of the essence of modern scientific thought and the essence of philosophical thought, and has written a magnificent chapter in the history of human thought! His scientific method – exploratory deductive method, the principle of logical simplicity, the quasi-aesthetic method, the figurative way of thinking – is unique, and his "cosmic religious thinking mode" or "cosmic religious method" is unique and worthy of reflection and emulation by future generations.
Why can philosopher-scientists become signposts in the history of human thought? This can be examined in two ways. From the perspective of science, among the three major knowledge systems of human beings, science or natural science is the discipline with the most rapid development compared with social science and humanities. Although it has a history of only more than 300 years, it is the treasure trove of human knowledge, both in terms of quantity and quality. Today, science and its applications have permeated all corners of society, and are pervasive and ubiquitous in all areas of culture. Science is the central axis of society, and scientific culture is the pinnacle of human culture. In particular, scientific thought, scientific method, and scientific spirit have become an endless source of driving force for the progress of human thought and an incomparable catalyst for social progress. Philosophers and scientists have always been at the forefront of science, exploring the hidden and the source of poverty. It will definitely be original, unique, ingenious, and unique, so as to obtain unique ideas and methods that surpass those of its predecessors, shocking and shocking, shocking the past and the present. From a philosophical point of view, philosopher-scientists generally have a strong interest in philosophy from an early age and are good at using philosophical thinking. The frontier issues of science explored by him are often intertwined with philosophy and are difficult to solve. Because philosopher-scientists have both scientific and philosophical skills, they are most likely to solve problems, invent extraordinary new concepts, and create new theories that are beyond the ordinary. On this basis, as long as it is synthesized or summarized, it will inevitably be able to extract the most universal and profound philosophical insights. Philosopher-scientists are scholars who have both scientific and philosophical thinking—which may be seen as a different interpretation of "two-faced thinking"—and it is only natural that they become signposters in the history of human thought. Pure scientists (even the great masters of science) and pure philosophers (even the great philosophers) are powerless about this, because they each lack the strengths of the other and have their own strengths.
Generally speaking, in the period of conventional science, philosophy has little or no significant effect on scientific research. However, in the period of the scientific revolution or the extraordinary period when the basic concepts and assumptions of science urgently need to be changed, scientists lack the ideological weapon to break the old and establish the new, so they have to turn to or with the help of the power of philosophical thinking to criticize the foundation of the old scientific theories and explore the logical starting point of the new scientific theories, that is, their initial concepts and initial assumptions, so as to break through the difficulties and go straight to the mysteries. At this time, it is a critical time for philosophers and scientists to display their talents, shine brightly, and win the final victory. At present, China is talking about scientific and technological innovation from top to bottom, and is calling for new discoveries or new inventions "from 0 to 1". Paying attention to cultivating or cultivating philosophers and scientists is undoubtedly the only way and the fundamental way to achieve this goal. To this end, it is necessary to adjust or change some of the current irrational science and technology policies and education regulations to meet the needs of the successful philosopher-scientists. It is best to start with children now, starting with quality education, so that children will not only love scientific exploration, but also love philosophical thinking.
About author:Li Xingmin is a former editor-in-chief and professor of the journal Dialectics of Nature Newsletter of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has published 22 books, 20 translations (English, Japanese, and Russian), and edited 10 book series. He has published more than 500 academic papers and articles in more than 100 journals at home and abroad. His research interests include theory of science (philosophy of science, history of scientific thought, culture of science, etc.).
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