From Biology To Philosophy

Gunther Siegmund Stent was a famous biologist in USA and an academician in National Academy of Science, has made great contribution to such fields as molecular biology, neurobiology and philosophy of science. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to study his thoughts. However, people in China have focused their attention mainly on his researches in molecular biology and neurobiology, and made little effort in exploring his scientific thoughts. The purpose of this paper is to attract the scientific field reexamine the development of science through introducing his scientific thoughts and provide some reference for domestic research on philosophy of science.Based on a careful reading of Stent's relevant books, this paper has explained and evaluated Stent's philosophical thoughts of biology and the end of the science.As for his thoughts on philosophical thoughts of biology, the author elaborated the formation of the discipline from the views of three schools such as the information school, bio-chemistry school and structure school. In 1953, Watson and Crick discovered the double helix structure of DNA, which integrated the three schools and marked the emergence of molecular biology and facilitated the maturation of the discipline. Stent, as a witness of the discipline, analyzed its development history and divided the course into three phases, namely the romantic phase, the dogmatic phase and the academic phase. Based on the fact that Avery (Oswald T. Avery) discovered DNA is genetic and that Crick the double helix structure of DNA, he proposed two questions: what is the significance of prematurity of scientific discovery? And is there any uniqueness of creative science compared with creative art? At last, he came up with the cause of the prematurity of the scientific discovery, and held that creative science was as unique as that of art. The scientific ending theory has triggered wide interest in the Chinese and western academic circle since 1990s. From 1960s, Stent has started to ponder on the question of the limits of science and published abook——The coming of the Golden Age; a view of the end of progress in1969, in which he expressed his core thoughts that progressive causes such as science, technology and art are contained by their research subjects and are coming to an end. In his opinion, progress, the feature that has made great contribution to science and lasted for over 200 years in the west, is now approaching an end. He also offered his explanation on the cause from three inner conflicts that constrain progress that is the psychological conflict, the material conflict and the cognitive conflict.