这是卡尔·雷门德·鲍波尔(Karl Raimund Popper)近年来的一篇重要讲演。鲍波尔在这里系统阐述了他的科学史观。在他看来,科学的发展正是马克思所说的“不断革命”。就是说,科学总是经过不断地试探,不断地排除错误、推翻现行理论,也即不断地批判而进步的。这种科学“不断革命”论,当然不能不引起人们极大的关注。这篇讲演运用分子进化论的成就论述了这个问题。鲍波尔认为,科学进步同生物进化(不管是遗传进化还是行为进化)一样,都是依靠内在“指令”和外部“选择”而实现的。个别科学家就象基因变异一样,不断地用假说和理论进行随机的试探,这是来自科学传统内部的新指令。同时,也象一切变异都要经过环境的筛选一样,各种试探性理论也经过经验的检验和科学界的审查,排除错误,保持了科学传统的合理性和稳定性。在这里,如果说科学进步有什么特点的话,也不过是:科学知识通过人类语言而成为一种更富于想象力的客观存在(甚至是他在别的地方所说独立于物质世界和精神世界的“第三世界”)。但是,它的这个发展规律又只能限于科学范围以内,一旦超出这个范围,涉及意识形态的问题,就成了“非科学”、“非理性”的,一般就只能象宗教一样成为科学进步的障碍了。马克思主义相信,科学总是通过真理不断战胜错误、更新的真理不断取代更新的错误而发展的。应当说,鲍波尔所说的“不断革命”也从一定侧面反映了这个真理发展的规律。但是,他在这个生物进化的类比中,强调了科学家个人活动的随机性,强调了批判中否定的、“证伪”的一面,又不能不使人感到,对于人类活动区别于基因变异的自觉性,对于否定中的肯定,他似乎估计得太低了。至于把意识形态的作用几乎完全看成是消极的,那就显然出于某种偏见了。鲍波尔在讲演中一再提到纪念斯宾塞,看来他可能确实未能完全摆脱这位十九世纪哲学家的社会进化论:社会进步不过是生物进化的延伸。这位奥地利出生的当代英国哲学家的哲学观点,包括这一套科学观,对今天的科学界影响很大,当代许多著名科学家纷纷以跻身“鲍波尔派”为荣。考虑到这一点,深入研究他的观点,研究他的正确和错误、成功和失败,就显得更加重要了。 This is an important lecture by Karl Raimund Popper in recent years. Bobo systematically expounded his view of the history of science here. In his opinion, the development of science is just what Marx calls “continuous revolution.” That is to say, science always goes on probing, constantly eliminating errors and overthrowing existing theories, that is, continuously criticizing and progressing. Of course, this scientific theory of “continuous revolution” can not but cause great concern. This lecture deals with this issue by using the achievements of molecular evolution. According to Boboer, scientific progress, like the evolution of biology (whether genetic or evolutionary), relies on internal “instructions” and external “choices.” Individual scientists, like genetic variation, continually tentatively test with hypotheses and theories, new instructions from within the scientific tradition. At the same time, as all variations go through environmental screening, all kinds of tentative theories have also been tested by experience and scrutiny by the scientific community to eliminate mistakes and preserve the scientific rationality and stability. Here, if there is any characteristic of scientific progress, it is nothing more than that: scientific knowledge has become a more imaginative objective existence through human language (even as he said elsewhere independently of the physical world and the spiritual world “Third World ”). However, its law of development can only be limited within the scope of science. Once it is out of this scope, the issue of ideology becomes “unscientific” and “irrational”, and generally it can only be regarded as religion The same has become an obstacle to scientific progress. Marxism believes that science has always been developed through unceasing truth trumps mistakes, newer truths constantly replacing the newer mistakes. It should be said that what Bobble called “continuous revolution” also reflects the law of the development of truth to a certain extent. However, in this analogy of biological evolution, he emphasizes the randomness of individual scientists' activities, emphasizes the negative, “falsification” side of criticism, and can not but make people feel different from human activities in terms of genetic variation The consciousness of the negation, he seems to estimate too low. As to the almost completely negative effect of the role of ideology, it is clear that there is some bias. In his speech, Ballo repeatedly mentions Spencer, and it seems that he may indeed have failed to get rid of the social evolution of the nineteenth-century philosopher: social progress is but an extension of biological evolution. The philosophical view of this Austrian-born contemporary British philosopher, including this set of scientific concepts, has a great influence on the scientific community today. Many famous contemporary scientists are proud of being among the “Boborin factions.” With that in mind, it becomes even more important to study his ideas in depth and study his correctness and error, success and failure.