#24 OCT 2016
Special

STORY

Exploring Questions for Scientific Philosophy

Invited Lecture Delivered by Professor Hasok Chang

“How can scientists develop creativity for research?” On September 23, ETRI’s International Conference Room
was packed with researchers enthusiastic to discover the answers to that question.
A special invited lecture was held by Prof. Hasok Chang of the University of Cambridge, a privileged scholar in scientific philosophy.
The speaker and ETRI researchers took the opportunity to engage in a passionate interaction.

A number of executives and employees of ETRI attended the lecture delivered by Prof. Hasok Chang at the International Meeting Room. With the theme “Scientists Making a Break from Conventional Wisdom,” Prof. Chang gave a 90-minute lecture to the enthusiastic attendees.
Prof. Chang opened his lecture by saying, “Many say we need science education and policies to develop creativity, but there’s no fixed way to develop creativity. In fact, I believe the best way is to find inspiration from the scientists who showed creativity in their research.” He also introduced a range of anecdotes from the history of science and stories of scientists who actually broke away from conventional wisdom.
In the Q&A session following the lecture, the attendees asked questions not only about the topic, but also about Prof. Chang personally. Another event was “Meeting of Prof. Chang and Young Scientists,” for which five researchers were drawn to have lunch with the speaker.
Prof. Chang studied physics at the California Institute of Technology and earned his doctoral degree in Physics at Stanford University. He then pursuded a doctoral course at Harvard University and was appointed as a scientific philosophy professor at University College London in his late 20s. He is currently serving as the Hans Rausing Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at University of Cambridge. Some of his publications are Hasok Chang’s Science Meets Philosophy and Philosophy of Thermometer. In 2006, he won the Lakatos Award, which is often dubbed “the Nobel Prize for philosophy of science.”

 

Under the theme “Scientists Making a Break from Conventional Wisdom,” Prof. Chang delivered a lecture on creativity.
One of the major ideas was three ways to develop creative thinking: (1) Apply a well-known model to an irrelevant area; (2) Apply mutually conflicting ideas at the same time; (3) Do not skip what is hard to understand and instead keep trying to grasp it. Prof. Chang introduced a number of cases from the history of science to demonstrate multiple ways of thinking to ask questions and searching for answers
Prof. Chang added that it is necessary to pursue a different way of life to think outside of the box. To this end, he continued, it is essential to understand different background knowledge, different perspectives and a critical mind, and different intelligent values, and to ensure information exchanges and movement among different disciplines. Prof. Chang described “pluralism” as a tool to allow us to live outside of the box theoretically. This means that scientists should depart from sticking to a single area and instead adopt several paradigms and practices within one area. By doing this, scientists can achieve the usual scientific effect and also overcome the limits of prejudices.
Whereas pluralism might lower efficiency either temporarily or locally, it is a vital means to obtain extensive efficiency in the long run, Prof. Chang explained. To practice pluralism specifically, three aspects are required: tolerance toward those who have different frameworks, preservation of a useful system of practice already established, and an attitude to converge diverse academic disciplines when necessary. Prof. Chang also stated that, instead of reckless creativity, scientists need to have strong leadership to handle convergence of different frameworks at the same time. He lastly stressed that Korean society should endeavor to have long-term development in the future and implement policies to encourage interdisciplinary exchanges and mobility.