A Philosophical Analysis On The "Semi Science Illiterate" Phenomenon

In an age with rapidly advancing technologies, continuously optimized education system, and dynamic multimedia capabilities, people have more channels than ever to acquire knowledge and information. Most people have a grasp of some fundamental scientific knowledge, moving away from being a science illiterate. However there appeared to be a particular group of people in modern society. They have certain scientific knowledge, but never escaped the traditions of certain superstitions. This essay classifies the group of people as semi science illiterates that have certain level of technical knowledge but have no expertise in them. They are different from the science illiterates, but yet they do not possess the understanding of scientific methodologies, principles, and spirits, which affects their own cognitive ability and judgment as well as other people's understanding and utilizing of scientific knowledge.In our domestic society, semi science illiterates widely exist in every profession and every topic area. They are the main victims of pseudo science beliefs and at the same time provide a market for pseudo science. Therefore in order to resolve the difficult issue of pseudo science prevention and control, we need to dig into the root cause of the formation of the semi science illiterate phenomenon. First as scientific technologies become ever close to the daily lives of mankind, people's reliance and admiration towards science grow at a rapid rate. This kind of irrational bias towards scientific knowledge could easily create semi science illiterate phenomenon. Second, modern education system and methods are mostly homogeneous. Its partiality towards certain knowledge and the constraints of examination-based education create severe constraints for many of the subjective topics. Third, scientific cultures and humanity cultures becomes ever more apart in the modern society. Under the "macro scientific" environment, the stove piping of subjects created the division between scientific and liberal arts majors and encouraged the communication gap between different expert fields. In addition to this, the traditional thinking of linear subjective experience of the Chinese culture have influenced our ability to logically analyze and work within scientific constraints and in turn obstruct the formation of scientific knowledge for the masses. Semi science illiterate phenomenon brings severe negative influence to society. Including the promotion of pseudo science, copy-right violations, increased risks in engineering projects, degraded environments, and prevented true science to progress. Therefore, the education of these semi science illiterates becomes ever more important. This creates new requirements for today's technical education and communication technologies. From the perspective of educational methods, scientific methods and scientific spirits need to be emphasized. At the same time continue to provide education in quality and communication thus improving student's ability to recognize and deny pseudo science. From the perspective of communication methods, the creation of a rating and control system for technology-based media programs is needed. The quality of the facilitator or host of these media programs must also be improved and built upon. Concurrently, the theoretical study of the semi science illiterate phenomenon must also be established. This could possibly help the resolution of this phenomenon in the country.