形式科学简史

斐夷所非

于 2024-09-17 00:07:41 发布

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注：机翻，未校。

形式科学（formal science）是与形式系统，如逻辑学、数学、理论计算机科学、信息理论、系统理论、判定理论、统计学和一些语义学等有关的知识的分支。和其他科学不同，形式科学不是和基于真实世界观察理论有效性联系的，而与定义和规律为基础的形式系统性质相联系，但形式科学的方法可以被用来建造和检验观察真实世界的科学模型（或通用手段）。

Formal science

Smartencyclopedia

October 30, 2021

Formal science is a branch of science studying formal language disciplines concerned with formal systems, such as logic, mathematics, statistics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, information theory, game theory, systems theory, decision theory, and theoretical linguistics. Whereas the natural sciences and social sciences seek to characterize physical systems and social systems, respectively, using empirical methods, the formal sciences are language tools concerned with characterizing abstract structures described by symbolic systems. The formal sciences aid the natural science, social science, and actuarial science all through providing information about the structures used to describe the physical and the contemporary world, and what inferences may be made about them.
形式科学是研究与形式系统有关的形式语言学科的科学分支，例如逻辑、数学、统计学、理论计算机科学、人工智能、信息论、博弈论、系统论、决策论和理论语言学。自然科学和社会科学分别寻求使用实证方法描述物理系统和社会系统，而形式科学是涉及描述符号系统描述的抽象结构的语言工具。正规科学通过提供有关用于描述物理世界和当代世界的结构以及可以对它们做出哪些推断的信息来帮助自然科学、社会科学和精算学。

Etymology 词源

The modern usage of the term formal sciences, in English-language literature, occurs at least as early as 1860, in a posthumous publication of lectures on philosophy by Sir William Hamilton wherein logic and mathematics are listed as formal sciences. Going even further back to 1819, a German-language textbook on logic was published by Wilhelm Esser, elucidating the significance of the designation formal science (Formalwissenschaft) as applied to logic; an English-language translation of it is provided in William Hamilton’s lecture:
在英语文学中，形式科学一词的现代使用至少早在 1860 年就出现在威廉·汉密尔顿爵士（Sir William Hamilton）死后出版的哲学讲座中，其中逻辑和数学被列为形式科学。再往前追溯到 1819 年，Wilhelm Esser 出版了一本德语逻辑教科书，阐明了形式科学（Formalwissenschaft）这一名称应用于逻辑的重要性;威廉·汉密尔顿（William Hamilton）的演讲中提供了它的英文翻译：

Logic thus obtains, in common parlance, the appellation of a formal science, not indeed in the sense as if Logic had only a form and not an object, but simply because the form of human thought is the object of Logic; so that the title formal science is properly only an abbreviated expression.
因此，用通俗的话来说，逻辑获得了形式科学的称谓，这并不是说逻辑只有一个形式而没有对象，而仅仅是因为人类思想的形式是逻辑的对象;因此，形式科学这个标题只是一个缩写词。

History 历史

Formal sciences began before the formulation of the scientific method, with the most ancient mathematical texts dating back to 1800 BC (Babylonian mathematics), 1600 BC (Egyptian mathematics), and 1000 BC (Indian mathematics). From then on different cultures such as the Greek, Arab and Persian made major contributions to mathematics, while the Chinese and Japanese, independently of more distant cultures, developed their own mathematical tradition.
正式科学在科学方法形成之前就开始了，最古老的数学文本可以追溯到公元前 1800 年（巴比伦数学）、公元前 1600 年（埃及数学）和公元前 1000 年（印度数学）。从那时起，希腊、阿拉伯和波斯等不同文化对数学做出了重大贡献，而中国和日本则独立于更遥远的文化，发展了自己的数学传统。

Besides mathematics, logic is another example of one of the oldest subjects in the field of the formal sciences. As an explicit analysis of the methods of reasoning, logic received sustained development originally in three places: India from the 6th century BC, China in the 5th century BC, and Greece between the 4th century BC and the 1st century BC. The formally sophisticated treatment of modern logic descends from the Greek tradition, being informed from the transmission of Aristotelian logic, which was then further developed by Islamic logicians. The Indian tradition also continued into the early modern period. The native Chinese tradition did not survive beyond antiquity, though Indian logic was later adopted in medieval China.
除了数学之外，逻辑是形式科学领域最古老的学科之一的另一个例子。作为对推理方法的明确分析，逻辑最初在三个地方得到了持续发展：公元前 6 世纪的印度、公元前 5 世纪的中国以及公元前 4 世纪至公元前 1 世纪之间的希腊。对现代逻辑的正式复杂处理源自希腊传统，受到亚里士多德逻辑的传播的影响，然后由伊斯兰逻辑学家进一步发展。印度传统也一直延续到近代早期。中国本土传统并没有延续到古代之后，尽管印度逻辑后来在中世纪的中国被采用。

As a number of other disciplines of formal science rely heavily on mathematics, they did not exist until mathematics had developed into a relatively advanced level. Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal (1654), and Christiaan Huygens (1657) started the earliest study of probability theory. In the early 1800s, Gauss and Laplace developed the mathematical theory of statistics, which also explained the use of statistics in insurance and governmental accounting. Mathematical statistics was recognized as a mathematical discipline in the early 20th century.
由于许多其他正规科学学科严重依赖数学，因此直到数学发展到相对先进的水平时，它们才存在。皮埃尔·德·费马（Pierre de Fermat）和布莱斯·帕斯卡（Blaise Pascal）（1654）以及克里斯蒂安·惠更斯（Christiaan Huygens）（1657）开始了概率论的最早研究。在 1800 年代初期，高斯和拉普拉斯发展了统计数学理论，该理论还解释了统计在保险和政府会计中的使用。数理统计在 20 世纪初被公认为一门数学学科。

In the mid-20th century, mathematics was broadened and enriched by the rise of new mathematical sciences and engineering disciplines such as operations research and systems engineering. These sciences benefited from basic research in electrical engineering and then by the development of electrical computing, which also stimulated information theory, numerical analysis (scientific computing), and theoretical computer science. Theoretical computer science also benefits from the discipline of mathematical logic, which included the theory of computation.
在 20 世纪中叶，运筹学和系统工程等新的数学科学和工程学科的兴起使数学得到拓宽和丰富。这些科学受益于电气工程的基础研究，然后是电气计算的发展，这也刺激了信息论、数值分析（科学计算）和理论计算机科学。理论计算机科学也受益于数理逻辑学科，其中包括计算理论。

Branches 分支

Branches of formal science include computer science, mathematics, statistics, information science, and systems science.
正规科学的分支包括计算机科学、数学、统计学、信息科学和系统科学。

Differences from other sciences 与其他科学的区别

One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem, above all other sciences, is that its laws are absolutely certain and indisputable, while those of other sciences are to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts.
数学比其他所有科学都受到特别尊重的一个原因是，它的定律是绝对确定和无可争辩的，而其他科学的定律在某种程度上是有争议的，并且经常处于被新发现的事实推翻的危险中。

— Albert Einstein

As opposed to empirical sciences (natural and social), the formal sciences do not involve empirical procedures. They also do not presuppose knowledge of contingent facts or describe the real world. In this sense, formal sciences are both logically and methodologically a priori, for their content and validity are independent of any empirical procedures.
与实证科学（自然科学和社会科学）相反，正式科学不涉及实证程序。它们也不以对或有事实的了解为前提，也不以描述现实世界为前提。从这个意义上说，形式科学在逻辑和方法论上都是先验的，因为它们的内容和有效性独立于任何实证程序。

Therefore, straightly speaking, formal science is not a science. It is a formal logical system with its content targeted at components of experiential reality, such as information and thoughts. As Francis Bacon pointed out in the 17th century, experimental verification of the propositions must be carried out rigorously and cannot take logic itself as the way to draw conclusions in nature. Formal science is a method that is helpful to science but cannot replace science.
因此，直截了当地说，形式科学不是一门科学。它是一个正式的逻辑系统，其内容针对经验现实的组成部分，例如信息和思想。正如弗朗西斯·培根在 17 世纪指出的那样，命题的实验验证必须严格进行，不能将逻辑本身作为在自然界中得出结论的方式。形式科学是一种对科学有帮助但不能取代科学的方法。

Although formal sciences are conceptual systems, lacking empirical content, this does not mean that they have no relation to the real world. But this relation is such that their formal statements hold in all possible conceivable worlds – whereas, statements based on empirical theories, such as, say, general relativity or evolutionary biology, do not hold in all possible worlds, and may eventually turn out not to hold in this world as well. That is why formal sciences are applicable in all domains and useful in all empirical sciences.
尽管形式科学是概念系统，缺乏实证内容，但这并不意味着它们与现实世界没有关系。但这种关系是这样的，它们的正式陈述在所有可能的可以想象的世界中都成立——然而，基于经验理论的陈述，例如广义相对论或进化生物学，并不适用于所有可能的世界，最终可能在这个世界上也不成立。这就是为什么形式科学适用于所有领域，并且适用于所有实证科学。

Because of their non-empirical nature, formal sciences are construed by outlining a set of axioms and definitions from which other statements (theorems) are deduced. For this reason, in Rudolf Carnap’s logical-positivist conception of the epistemology of science, theories belonging to formal sciences are understood to contain no synthetic statements, being that instead all their statements are analytic.
由于它们的非经验性质，形式科学是通过概述一组公理和定义来解释的，从中可以推导出其他陈述（定理）。出于这个原因，在鲁道夫·卡纳普（Rudolf Carnap）的科学认识论逻辑实证主义概念中，属于形式科学的理论被理解为不包含合成陈述，而是它们的所有陈述都是分析性的。

References

American Mathematical Society. “MSC2010 database”. mathscinet.ams.org. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
Hamilton, William. Lectures on metaphysics and logic. 1860. Ed. Henry Longueville Mansel & John Veitch, pub. Gould and Lincoln. Vol. 4, pp. 64–65. “Formal truth will, therefore, be of two kinds,—Logical and Mathematical. […] The case is the same with the other formal science, the science of Quantity, or Mathematics.”
Esser, Wilhelm. Logik, § 3, pp. 5–6. Cf. et seq. 2d edit. 1819.—Ed. Krug, Denklehre oder Logik, § 8, p. 17
Hamilton, William. Lectures on metaphysics and logic. 1860. Ed. Henry Longueville Mansel & John Veitch, pub. Gould and Lincoln. Vol. 3, p. 17
edited by Karine Chemla (2012). The History of Mathematical Proof in Ancient Traditions. Cambridge. ISBN 978-1-107-01221-9. OCLC 804038758.
Albert Einstein (1923). “Geometry and Experience”. Sidelights on relativity. Courier Dover Publications. p. 27. Reprinted by Dover (2010), ISBN 978-0-486-24511-9.
Carnap, Rudolf (1938). “Logical Foundations of the Unity of Science”. International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science. I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bill, Thompson (2007), “2.4 Formal Science and Applied Mathematics”, The Nature of Statistical Evidence, Lecture Notes in Statistics, 189 (1st ed.), Springer, p. 15