Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book is a result from a collective study on philosophy of scientific practice (PSP), which began around 2002 and still in an ongoing process. There is an apparently increasing interest upon scientific practice, influence by the historicistic philosophy of science and the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). Prof. WU Tong and his research group believe that it is necessary for PSP to turn from the theory-dominant position to the practice-dominant position. PSP has also put forward some possibility to reinterpret epistemic status of local knowledge in Chinese tradition, which provides the most significant motivation to participate this study. In this book, we have selected three main cases, namely Chinese medicine, Fengshui, and Ethnobotany, to elaborate how PSP could do in that issue. The aim of our collective study is not merely on theoretical construction of PSP, but also on the various applications of the view of PSP, especially for re-interpreting and demonstrating variety of local knowledge from traditional China, which seems to be a genuine contribution for the international enterprise of philosophy of science, particularly made by Chinese scholars.