The significance of meaning. Why IPBES needs the social sciences and humanities

The term “biodiversity” is often used to describe phenomena of nature, which can be studied without a reference to the socially constructed, evaluative, or indeed normative contexts. In our paper, we challenge this conception by focusing particularly on methodological aspects of biodiversity research. We thereby engage with the idea of interdisciplinary biodiversity research as a scientific approach directed at the recognition and management of contemporary society in its ecological embedding. By doing this, we explore how research on and assessments of biodiversity can be enhanced if meaning, aspiration, desires, and related aspects of agency are methodically taken into account. In six sections, we substantiate our claim that the discourse on biodiversity (including the IPBES (Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) debate) is incomplete without contributions from the social sciences and humanities. In the introduction, a brief overview of biodiversity’s conceptual history is provided showing that “biodiversity” is a lexical invention intended to create a strong political momentum. However, that does not impede its usability as a research concept. Section 2 examines the origins of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by way of sociological discourse analysis. Subsequently, it proposes a matrix as a means to structure the ambiguities and tensions inherent in the CBD. The matrix reemphasizes our main thesis regarding the need to bring social and ethical expertise to the biodiversity discourse. In Section 3, we offer a brief sketch of the different methods of the natural and social sciences as well as ethics. This lays the groundwork for our Section 4, which explains and illustrates what social sciences and ethics can contribute to biodiversity research. Section 5 turns from research to politics and argues that biodiversity governance necessitates deliberative discourses in which participation of lay people plays an important role. Section 6 provides our conclusions.     

Theorizing the social: Émile Durkheim's theory of force and energy

This paper offers a new interpretation of Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) as the basis for reconsidering the Tarde–Durkheim debate of 1903 and the distinctions between a theory of social force and a theory of social assemblage. Resisting traditional interpretations of Durkheim's scientism, this essay traces how concepts of force and energy are centrally developed in Elementary Forms to draw new lines between epistemology to ontology for twentieth-century theory. I argue that Durkheim develops an ‘energetic epistemology’ that conceives of the human capacity for shared meaning as a product of invested energy in the form of continually enacted and evolving material practice, thought, and attention. According to Durkheim, when a member of a collective perceives a god or feels belief, he or she actually perceives the accumulated energy of on-going creation and maintenance of objects and ideas by members of a collective. Sacred objects, images, and ideas bear the trace of collective energy the more they are carefully crafted, maintained in spaces that are specially arranged, and written into behavioural codes. This reading of Durkheim allows us to consider him in a lineage of social constructivists and, particularly, in relation to Ludwik Fleck, who has been largely confined to different theoretical discussions when his contributions to sociology have been acknowledged at all. By reconsidering Durkheim, we have occasion to rethink his sociology and understand how he redrew the lines between thought and action, between epistemology and ontology, through the material framework of energy and force.     

浅谈工科大学生的人文素质现状及对策

人文素质教育,主要是培育学生的人文精神,其实质是使学生学会和谐地处理人与人、人与自然、人与社会的关系。综观当代工科院校大学生的人文素质,其缺陷常体现为“人文知识贫乏,学习目的功利趋动明显;人文价值残缺,缺乏整体判断能力、是非观念、同情心和吃苦耐劳精神;感情冷漠,无责任心,举止失范。”文章认为提高工科大学生的人文素质,高校关键应该注重两个方面的问题:一是树立正确教育理念,实现科学与人文教育的和谐统一;二要科学设置好相关的人文知识。     

深入学习实践科学发展观推动哲学社会科学繁荣发展

深入学习实践科学发展观,推动哲学社会科学繁荣发展,我们要统一思想和行动,增强以科学发展观统领哲学社会科学工作的自觉性和坚定性;要认真调查研究,找准制约繁荣发展哲学社会科学的突出问题;要坚持改革创新,着力构建促进哲学社会科学繁荣发展的保障体制;要积极投身学习实践活动,充分发挥哲学社会科学在学习实践科学发展观中的重要作用。     

科学发展观视角下对办好高校社科学报的思考

高校社科学报目前存在着实力不强、质量不高、办刊困难的局面,要改变这种状况,就要贯彻落实科学发展观,明确学报的发展方向、本质和核心,发展的基本内涵和基本要求,使高校学报真正拥有一席之地。     

当代中国哲学社会科学的学术范式与文化自觉

自19世纪末以来,中国哲学社会科学有了三大思想文化资源：中国传统文化、马克思主义、西方思想文化。以何种方法和评价标准来整合这三大思想文化资源,成为以中国共产党代表的中国先进分子努力探索的历史性课题。中国特色、中国风格、中国气派是正确对待三大思想文化资源的学术范式。“马学为宗、国学为根、西学为鉴”是这一学术范式本质特征的综合体现。是当代中国的文化自觉。     

论理工科大学生人文社会科学素质培养

从人文素质的三个层面——人文知识、人文技能、人文精神着手分析理工科大学生人文素质的内涵,指出人文素质的三个层面及其内涵决定着人文素质在人才培养中具有基础地位和积极作用。人文素质教育是时代对高校人才培养提出的必然要求,是人的全面发展的需要。     

试论思想政治工作的开放性思维

思想政治工作是一项社会系统工程,高等学校的思想政治工作必须打破过去思维方式的局限,全方位、多层次、多渠道地综合进行,走向开放性思维。思想政治工作要面向未来,适应素质教育的要求,引导和培养青年学生的创新意识和创新能力,促进青年学生各方面素质的发展。要注意发挥社会教育的效能,构建思想政治工作的综合网络体系。     

论学科的分类

人类的知识体系不能只是简单地分为社会科学和自然科学两大类,而应该分为社会科学、自然科学、思维科学、工程科学和人文学科五大类.这五类学科互相交叉、互相渗透,构成了错综复杂的知识体系.搞清学科的分类对学科本身的发展和社会的发展都大有益处.