友邻哲学旅人 E51 培根的科学方法与现代科学方法

But then again, is the Baconian method correct?
但是再来一遍的话，培根的方式正确吗？
Is it the method most fruitfully used in modern science?
它是现代科学最有效的方法吗？

英语句子的多样性来自词性的变化.

No: generally, science has used, with best result, not the accumulation of data ("natural history") and their manipulation by the complicated tables of the Novum Organum, but the simpler method of hypothesis, deduction and experiment.
不，总体而言，科学研究取得最佳成果的好方法并非材料的累积("自然历史")，也不是根据《新工具》中复杂表格的方法处理材料，而是更为简便的假设、演绎与实验。

现代科学为什么没有用培根的东西?

因为太复杂.

So Darwin, reading Malthus' Essay on Population, conceived the idea of applying to all organisms the Malthusian hypothesis that population tends to increase faster than the means of subsistence;
所以，在读了马尔萨斯的《人口论》后，达尔文形成了这样一个观念:使用所有马尔萨斯的一个假设--关于人口增长速度超过物质财富累积速度的假说应用于所有生物；

deduced from this hypothesis the probable conclusion that the pressure of population on the food-supply results in a struggle for existence in which the fittest survive, and by which in each generation every species is changed into closer adaptation to its environment;
并由此演绎出一个可能的结论：人口对食物供给造成的压力促使生物为了生存而竞争，其中适者生存，并且每一代生物不断变化,变成好的能适应环境;

物竞天择 适者生存

and finally (having by hypothesis and deduction limited his problem and his field of observation) turned to "the unwithered face of nature" and made for twenty years a patient inductive examination of the facts.
最后(通过这样的假设和演绎限制了他的问题和观测范围领域)他看向了“大自然永不枯竭的面孔”(直面客观世界)，用了20年的时间非常有耐心地对各种事实一一进行归纳检验。

要自己思考--直面真实客观世界

现代科学(更简单):假设-演绎(把你的问题从浩瀚无边的海洋变成一个问题)--作实验(归纳法)

培根的方法:堆大数据--对数据进行分类--提出各种各样解释--作实验,把一个个实验排除.

Again, Einstein conceived, or took from Newton, the hypothesis that light travels in curved, not straight lines;
此外，爱因斯坦曾提出这样一个设想，也许是受到牛顿的启发，觉得光的传播途径并非直线而是曲线；

deduced from it the conclusion that a star appearing to be (on the straight-line theory) in a certain position in the heavens is really a little to one side of that position;
并从中演绎出这样的结论，(在光直线传播的理论中)
即星体的实际位置并非我们眼前所见，而应有一些偏离；

and he invited experiment and observation to test the conclusion.
后来他设计了实验与观测来对这个结论进行检验。

Obviously the function of hypothesis and imagination is greater than Bacon supposed;
显然的,对于这个假设和想象力比培根的预期更伟大

(假说与想象的作用显然超出了培根的预期)；

and the procedure of science is more direct and circumscribed than in the Baconian scheme.
真正的科学流程会更加直接,并且划定了一个范围,比培根的表格来的更加直接.

Bacon himself anticipated the superannuation of his method; the actual practice of science would discover better modes of investigation than could be worked out in the interludes of statesmanship.
培根他自己也是预测到他的方法会对后世产生的印象会被淘汰;真实科学的实践有可能会发现更好的研究的模式,比培根从政之余来搞搞科学,会做的更好.

"These things require some ages for the ripening of them."
“这些东西需要几代人的实践来令其成熟。”

培根方法论:

收集数据--假设--排除假设得结论

现代科学方法论:

先做假设--再做演绎,把假设变得更具体--根据这个做实践(归纳法)

从逻辑角度,培根的更严密,因为任何科学之可能证伪,不可能证明.

现代科学方法论从实践角度,更加有效率,因为他调动了人的抽象思考能力.

培根是把人的抽象主观能力撇除在外的,他觉得不能调动,否则会看清这个自然本真面目如此.

但是我们现在做科研不能就和自然打交道,还有人的想象力.

全面实践,效率不够,还是要有人类的想象力.

一旦入世 得其中 调和为用 任何偏激的东西就算是对也不能用 必须去做调和.

语言点

conceive: vt. 理解；形成

food-supply: n. 食物链

the fittest survive: 物竞天择，适者生存

circumscribed: adj. 受限制的

anticipate: vt. 预测

superannuation: n. 退休金

interlude: n. 插曲

statesmanship: n. 政治

ripening: n. 成熟