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Have you ever thought
of how life began? Are you always puzzled(疑惑)
about how big the universe(宇宙)
is? Have you wondered whether God exists?
Are you always frightened by scientific
inventions?
I am not trying
to answer all these questions, but rather,
giving examples of questions that prominent(傑出)
scientists, or philosophers (thinkers),
always liked to think about, for examples
Galileo to Albert Einstein, and from ancient
Greece to Modern China. These were typical
questions asked by famous philosophers,
and these were always the same questions
that the scientists tried to find answers.
But how does this quest(找尋) for
answers to life eventually lead to the
evolution(進化) of scientific inventions
and ultimately made contribution to the
advancement of technology. What is the
relationship between science and philosophy?
To understand this let's have a look at
a brief summary of the progress within
this short 2000 years of scientific evolution.
"The
important thing is not to stop questioning"
- Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
Ancient Greece:
Science or Philosophy
In the early
days, the Greek "scientists"
were really philosophers. Aristotle and
Socrates (1) were the famous ones. They
asked a lot of questions and debated(辨論)
among themselves days and nights. There
was even a school dedicating(投入)
to debating in Athens where they argued
endlessly and enthusiastically(熱誠).
The Greeks were extremely imaginative
and when they were arguing how life began,
they invented it. Apollo, Titan, Venus
and Zeus were the products of their unlimited
imaginative power. Pythagoras and Archimedes
(2) were two famous thinkers you should
have known well. What? No? Have you skipped
Mathematics lessons lately? They, as well
as many other Greek thinkers, continued
to influence the western world even today.
"The
only good is knowledge and the only evil
is ignorance" - Socrates (469 - 399
B.C.)
From Galileo
to Issac Newton
Many hundred
years later, Galileo started to wonder
how it looked like in the sky but Newton
looked downward into the earth. Galileo
boldly(大膽) went beyond new frontiers
where no one had gone before. He even
quarreled with the Church and Sir Issac
Newton discovered gravity which deals
with a force buried thousands feet under
the ground. However, it was Galileo who
had inspired(鼓勵) Newton and,
in turn, people liked Archimedes and Pythagoras
influenced Galileo. If not because of
Galileo, we might still think that the
earth is flat. Were they not trying to
find answers to whether God exists we
would not be enjoying the advance in technology
nowadays.
Albert Einstein
No one would
argue that Albert Einstein is the greatest
scientist of all time. The theory of Newton
ceased to function when applied in outer
space. Einstein questioned why and based
on Newton's findings, he did an extensive
research and came up with the universal
law: E=mc2(3) and theory of relativity(4).
The relativity theory(相對論) says
that the motion of an object is only relative
to another, that is, a comparison only.
So the question of whether it is "night
or day" only depends on where we
are when asking it. In London it is day,
but in Australia it is night. An object
will appear bigger or smaller depending
upon its distance from a given point of
observation. "Up" and "down"
are also relative notions, which changed
when it was discovered that the world
is round, not flat. Even to this day,
it is hard for "common sense"
to accept that people in Australia can
walk "upside down. When applied in
daily life, rich and poor, clever and
foolish, hardworking and lazy are all
matters of comparison.
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
goes further the study of Einstein's theory
deeper into space. He questioned Einstein's
theory and even came close to invoke(推翻)
it. By far his contribution in astronomy
is unprecedented(無前例) and many
scientists, and religion leaders as well,
have not been able to overturn his "Big
Bang theory". It stated that the
universe was created during a very big
explosion within 0.000001 second of time
and he calculated that the universe is
ever expanding at an increasing rate.
See if you have other theory in mind?
"Equations
are just the boring part of mathematics.
I attempt to see things in terms of geometry."
- Stephen Hawking
Modern Science:
Biotechnology
We came to
the 21st century, where it bears fruits
from all the great knowledge accumulated
from the past 2000 more years. It is little
wonder that with the techniques in genetic
engineering(遺傳工程), scientist can
duplicate(複製) the sheep - Dolly,
and make many more copies. The scientists
even go further to try duplicating human,
but it has created a lot of philosophical
and moral questions on whether to clone
man. It seems like a science cannot be
separated from philosophy. That may explain
why the title Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy.
Do you have a lot of questions, if so,
you may have the quality of becoming a
philosopher, or rather say, a scientist.
Note
(1) Aristotle and
Socrates - They are famous thinkers in
Greece. They have vast interest and like
to find out the reason for everything.
(2) Pythagoras and
Archimedes -Pythagoras and Archimedes
were two famous mathematicians. Pythagoras
theorem describe how to calculate the
lengths of the sides of a right angle
triangle and Archimedes describe how to
calculate the volume by displacing water
from an object to be measured immerged.
(3) E = mc2 - it is
a measure of the energy stored in an object
having a certain mass, c is the speed
of light, E is the energy and m is the
mass.
(4) Theory of relativity
- it describes motion of an object traveling
on a moving object relative to another
traveling on another moving object. In
short, motion of one object is affected
by another object nearby.
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