Levels of Scientific Understanding

多年来，关于不同领域的科学理论如何相互关联的“公认观点”一直是一种等级模型。其基础是物理学，或者更准确地说是基本粒子物理学。粒子物理学被认为是所有科学中最基础的。然后依次是化学、分子生物学、普通生物学、心理学和社会科学。科学哲学中的许多工作都致力于研究这门科学中相邻层次之间的关系。汉弗莱斯博士在这个项目中，试图回答人们对属性间关系的担忧。哲学和心理学主要关注的一个例子是心理或计算特性与其潜在的神经生物学/物理特性之间的关系。关于身心问题和认知科学的地位的问题直接取决于如何回答这个一般性问题。汉弗莱斯博士特别提出了一种新的方法来描述“涌现”和“非涌现”属性之间的区别。例如，思维是如何从构成大脑的神经元的特性中“浮现”出来的？思想和记忆是如何从这个物理器官中发生的化学和电子相互作用中产生的？研究这些关系的关键在于，心理学家研究的因果属性（思想、情感、记忆）在神经生物学层面上并不存在，而只在心理学层面上“出现”。本研究的主要焦点是如何正确地解释这些突现属性，并以区分内部和外部关系作为正确处理的指导。汉弗莱斯博士正在利用这些研究来扩展现有的科学解释，以包括涌现的特性。＊＊＊

9311982 Humphreys The "received view" of how scientific theories in different domains are related to each other has been, for a number of years, a hierarchical model. At the base is physics, or elementary particle physics to be more precise. Particle physics is taken as the most fundamental of all sciences. Then come, in order, chemistry molecular biology, general biology, psychology, and the social sciences. Much work in the philosophy of science has been devoted to the relationship between adjacent levels within this science. Dr. Humphreys, in this project, is attempting to answer concerns about the inter-level relationship of properties. An example of major concern for philosophy and psychology has been the relation between psychological or computational properties and their underlying neurobiological/physical properties. Issues concerning the mind/body problem and the status of cognitive science depend directly on how this general question is answered. Dr. Humphreys is specifically addressing a new way to characterize the distinction between "emergent" and "nonemergent" properties. How, for example, can the mind "emerge" from the properties of the neurons that make up the brain? How does thought and memory come out of the chemical and electrical interactions that occur in this physical organ? The crucial point in looking at these relations is that the causal properties that the psychologist deals with (thoughts, emotions, memories) do not exist at the neurobiology level and only "emerge" at the level of psychology. The main focus of this research is the proper way to construe these emergent properties, with the distinction between internal and external relations as the guide to a correct treatment. Dr. Humphreys is using these investigations to extend existing accounts of scientific explanation to include emergent properties. ***