Short Biography

Mr. Song TIAN (田松) is a full professor at the Center for the Humanities, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech, China), and is a philosopher and historian. He has two Ph.D. degrees: Philosophy of Science from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and History of Science from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was a visiting scholar at UC. Berkeley, Cornell University, and Harvard University (Fulbright scholar). His research areas cover philosophy, history, and sociology of science; environmental philosophy; and science communication. He is one of the earliest Chinese humanities scholars focusing on garbage issues, a pioneering advocate for ecological agriculture, regarded as a key figure in STS in China. Recently, he proposed the research programme STSE (Science, Technology, Society, and Environment) for the history of science, sociology of science, and other STS fields, by which to connect history of science with environmental history.

Project

 The Mechanisms of Industrial Civilization and the Possible Future Civilization

In the turning point that industrial civilization may collapse because of the globalized ecological and environmental crisis. A new direction for civilization is necessary.
During the two months of visiting, I plan to complete a job on civilization studies. It may conclude the following parts:

1.    The three preconditions of civilization and their function: the ecological, technological, and cultural.
2.    The changing of the social roles of science and science communities in pre-industrial and industrial societies.
3.    The trinity of industrial civilization: the ideology of industrial civilization, the social system of industrial civilization(political, economic, law, and so on), and the institutionalized science and technology.
4.    The inter-construction of math-physical science, the mechanistic view of nature, and industrial civilization
5.    Garbage, the incurable cancer of industrial civilization, viewed from thermodynamics and ecology.
6.    Chemical industry, the sin of industrial civilization, and the turning point of the relationship between humans and nature.
7.    Plastic, the metaphor of Anthropocene.
8.    The first main mechanism of industrial civilization: the food chain of globalization.
9.    The second main mechanism of industrial civilization: the chain of “science-technology-product-industry-pollution & waste”(STPIPW Chain), as well as the first principle of factory ecology, and the lifespan law of technological products.
10.    The three interpretations of ecological civilization in China: 1) parallel coexistence with, 2) as the advanced stage of, and 3) total transformation from industrial civilization.
11.    Ecological agriculture, as the premise and foundation of ecological civilization
12.    The three alternatives of non-mechanistic views of nature: animism, the ecological view of nature, and Gaia
13.    Bowuology(natural history), a fragile and hopeful way of salvation.
14.    Bowuology, as the core of primary education towards ecological civilization
    
During the two months, I hope to participate in the academic activities of the worldmaking project and the Rachael Carson Center, and try to give some speeches on the above topics, if possible.