论科学术语的道德维度

语言对于思想具有反作用,术语对于科学的形成及永续发展至关重要。如果术语的混乱导致了交流障碍,学术研究的共同体就无法形成或无法发挥作用。因而,只有通过首先在术语使用上确保交流的畅通无阻,科学研究才能在科学共同体的促进下得到可持续的有效发展。需要进一步强调的是,科学本身对于术语在科学家共同体中的使用有一种伦理要求。根据美国科学家皮尔士所提出的术语伦理学原则,“语词有其义务,同样也有其权利,它们不容践踏。存在一种关于语词的伦理学,因为词语是一种社会构制。科学本身也是社会性事务,如果没有对于所用术语意义的公共理解,就不可能实现科学的繁荣”。谁将一种概念引入科学,谁就有责任发明和界定合适的术语来予以表达；而一旦这种责任得到了尽力履行,任何在原初意义之外使用发明者术语的行为,都将视为对于概念创始人的不公对待和对于科学的冒犯,此共同体中的其他成员有责任对此行为表示轻蔑和愤慨,甚至对于使用那些术语的同义词的人也要侧目而视,显示出某种不满,除非科学能通过那另种表达式的作用而得到积极推进。一套科学术语的规则甚至可以要求,尽量使用其意义不易被误解的词语,即使它们对一般读者显得深奥难懂。作为一项严格精确的事业,科学本来就需要勤奋钻研的学者,那些被科学术语所吓倒的浅薄、懒惰的读者,注定永远无缘于科学之真谛。

On the Moral Dimension of Scientific Terms

A good terminology is requisite for a science and its long-standing development.Science,in it- self,has a moral requirement on inventing and using its terms.The Ethics of Terminology set forth by C. S.Peirce tells us much inspiration and suggestion about some appropriate rules of scientific terms.The deepest and most powerful causes of the success of the modern physical and natural sciences have been of a moral nature,in which the ethics of scientific terms is included.For the sake of the lasting progress of sci- ence,all the men in the community should recognize that words have their rights as well as their duties, which must not be trampled upon.There is an ethics of words,and especially of scientific words,because words are a social institution.Science,too,is a social business,and cannot prosper without a common un- derstanding as to how words shall be used.