Understanding Science and Technology

科学技术在现代文化中占据主导地位，影响无处不在；然而，它们从未被普遍理解。明尼苏达科学哲学中心、科学技术史项目、查尔斯·巴贝奇信息处理历史研究所、医学史系和明尼苏达大学生物医学伦理中心已经联合起来，共同努力了解科学技术在我们社会中的运作。科技史家与科技哲学家的合作研究主要集中在四个方面：(1)模式、理论与现实；（二）物理科学史和哲学；（三）生物科学史和哲学；（四）科学技术与社会的相互作用。在第一领域，历史学家和哲学家正在研究科学模型或理论及其与“现实”的关系。他们正在研究科学表征的本质；现实主义、理想化和实验的问题；数学和逻辑在经验科学中的应用；以及认知科学哲学中的问题。在第二领域，历史学家和哲学家们正在集中研究量子力学的历史和哲学问题、核模型的性质和地位、光的性质以及物理学中理论和实验的相互作用。在领域三，他们正在审查生物医学和物理科学之间的相互关系；生物医学科学的机构组织；以及生物学、医学和价值观方面的问题，包括生物医学、遗传学和社会学方面的理论和争议、博物学和进化生物学方面的企业、疾病和公共卫生理论以及临床研究的设计。最后，在第四领域，他们正在调查科学和技术机构、科学和技术的伦理问题、理论和实验的相互作用以及政府在科学和技术相互作用中的作用。这项资助为期五年，支持参与这些研究领域的研究和培训的博士后和研究生。

Science and technology have been dominant and pervasive influences in modern culture; yet they have never been generally well understood. The Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, the Program in History of Science and Technology, the Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Information Processing, the Department of History of Medicine, and the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Minnesota have joined together in a coordinated effort to understand the operation of science and technology in our society. The collaborative research efforts among historians and philosophers of science and technology center on four areas: (I) models, theories, and reality; (II) the history and philosophy of physical science; (III) the history and philosophy of biological sciences; and (IV) interactions among science technology and society. In area I, historians and philosophers are examining scientific models or theories and their relation to "reality." They are examining the nature of scientific representations; the issues of realism, idealization, and experimentation; the application of mathematics and logic in the empirical sciences; and issues in the philosophy of cognitive science. In area II, historians and philosophers are concentrating on questions in the history and philosophy of quantum mechanics, the nature and status of nuclear models, the nature of light, and the interaction of theory and experiment in physics. In area III, they are examining the interrelationship between biomedical and physical sciences; the institutional organization of biomedical science; and issues in biology, medicine and values including theories and controversies in biomedicine, genetics and society, the enterprises of natural history and evolutionary biology, theories of disease and public health, and the design of clinical research. Finally, in area IV, they are investigating scientific and technological institutions, ethical issues of science and technology, the interaction of theory and experiment, and the role of government in science-technology interactions. This grant over five years supports postdoctoral fellows and graduate students who are participating in research and training in each of these lines of research.