Overview

In these papers derived from an international conference held in 1992 in Beijing, Chinese and Western philosophers treat current as well as historically situated issues of realism and anti-realism in the understanding of scientific knowledge. There are four sections: (1) philosophical arguments proper (Hilpinen, Krejci, Musgrave, Niiniluoto, Qiu Renzong, Sfendoni-Mentzou, Bahm, Wallner and Peschl); (2) realism and general methodology (James Brown, Franklin, Gavroglu, Kaiser, Chin-Tai Kim, Wartofsky, Watkins, Wright, Wu Qiongbing, Yin Zhengkun); (3) physical sciences (Fan Dainian, Folse, He Zuoxiu, Hong Dingguo, Jin Wulun, Johansson, Li Li, Luo and Hu, Mao Shiying, Schagrin, Schlagel, Zhou Jihong); (4) social and biological sciences (Mäki, Shanahan, Paul Tang and Ralph Brown III, Cohen). The conference was inspired by the late Professor Tscha Hung of Beijing, for many years Director of the Institute of Foreign Philosophy at Beijing University, and a distinguished PhD from the University of Vienna in 1934 under Moritz Schlick.