Xiang  Chen

Xiang Chen, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

chenxi@callutheran.edu
(805) 493-3235
Humanities 221

About

A native of China, Dr. Chen has taught philosophy at Zhongshan University in Canton, China and at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His specialties include the philosophy and history of science and Oriental philosophy. He has written numerous articles for academic journals on these and other philosophy-related topics. He teaches courses in the philosophy of science, logic, technology and values, bioethics and contemporary philosophy.

Education

Ph.D., Science and Technology Studies (Specializing in Philosophy of Science), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, May 1992.

M.S., Science and Technology Studies (Specializing in Philosophy of Science), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, October 1988.

M.A., Philosophy and History of Science, Department of Philosophy, Zhongshan University, January 1985.

B.A., Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Zhongshan University, January 1982.

Expertise

Philosophy of Science

Cognitive Studies of Science

History of Science

Publications

i) Books

Andersen, Hanne, Peter Barker, and Xiang Chen. 2006. The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chen, Xiang. 2000. Instrumental Traditions and Theories of Light: The Uses of Instruments in the Optical Revolution. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

ii) Edited Collections

Li, Ping, and Xiang Chen (Eds). 2004. Cognitive Studies of Science and Reasoning. Nanchang: Jiangxi People's Press.

Li, Ping, Zhilin Zhang, Huaxia Zhang, and Xiang Chen (Eds.). 2004. Science, Cognition and Consciousness. Nanchang: Jiangxi People's Press.

iii) Articles

Chen, Xiang. 2015. The emergence and development of causal representations. Philosophy and Cognitive Science II, Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, edited by L. Magnani, P. Li, & W. Park, 21-34. Berlin: Springer.

Chen, Xiang. 2014. Why are we reluctant to act immediately on climate change? From ontological assumptions to core cognition. Perspectives on Science 22: 574-592.

Chen, Xiang. 2014. Interests in conceptual changes: A frame analysis. In Frames and Concept Types: Applications in Language and Philosophy, edited by T. Gamerschlag, D. Gerland, R. Osswald & W. Petersen, 111-122. Berlin: Springer.

Chen, Xiang. 2012. The greenhouse metaphor and the greenhouse effect: A case study of a flawed analogous model. In Philosophy and Cognitive Science, SAPERE 2, edited by L. Magnani & P. Li, 105-114. Berlin: Springer.

Chen, Xiang. 2011. Why do people misunderstand climate change? Heuristics, mental models and ontological assumptions. Climatic Change 108: 31-46.

Chen, Xiang. 2010. Paradigm. In Encyclopedia of Research Design, edited by N. Salkind, 2: 993-995. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Chen, Xiang. 2010. A different kind of revolutionary change: Transformation from object to process concepts. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 41: 182-191.

Chen, Xiang, and Peter Barker. 2009. Process concepts and cognitive obstacles to change: Perspectives on the history of science and science policy. Centaurus 51: 314-20.

Chen, Xiang. 2009. The role of interests in scientific change: Lessons from cognitive psychology. Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology 2: 13-28.

Chen, Xiang. 2007. The object bias and the study of scientific revolutions: Lessons from developmental psychology. Philosophical Psychology 20: 479-503.

Chen, Xiang. 2005. Visual photometry in the early 19th century: A "good" science with "wrong" measurements. In Wrong for the Right Reasons, edited by J. Buchwald and A. Franklin, 161-83. Netherlands: Springer.

Chen, Xiang. 2005. Transforming temporal knowledge: Conceptual change between event concepts. Perspectives on Science 13: 49-73.

Chen, Xiang. 2004. Scripts and conceptual change. In Science, Cognitive, and Consciousness, edited by P. Li, X. Chen, and H.X. Zhang, 96-117. Nanchang: Jiangxi People's Press.

Chen, Xiang. 2003. Object and event concepts: A cognitive mechanism of incommensurability. Philosophy of Science 70: 962-74.

Chen, Xiang. 2003. Why did Herschel fail to understand polarization? The differences between object and event concepts. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 34: 491-513.

Barker, Peter, Xiang Chen, and Hanne Andersen. 2003. Kuhn on concepts and categorization. In Thomas Kuhn, edited by T. Nickles, 212-45. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chen, Xiang. 2002. Philosophy of science. In Contemporary Inquiries into the Foundational Issues of Philosophy, edited by B. Mou, 394-401. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Chen, Xiang. 2002. Incommensurability of paradigms and rational appraisal of science. In Contemporary Inquiries into the Foundational Issues of Philosophy, edited by B. Mou, 3-27. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Chen, Xiang. 2002. The 'platform' for comparing incommensurable taxonomies: A cognitive-historical analysis. Journal for General Philosophy of Science 33: 1-22.

Chen, Xiang. 2001. Cognitive mechanisms for evaluating incommensurable theories. Philosophical Research 9: 16-23.

Chen, Xiang. 2001. Perceptual symbols and taxonomy comparison. Philosophy of Science 69: 200-212.

Chen, Xiang. 2001. Optics. In Reader's Guide to the History of Science, edited by Hessenbruch, 534-35. London: Fitzroy Dearborn.

Chen, Xiang. 2001. Measuring reflective power with the eye. Physics in Perspective 3: 439-61.

Chen, Xiang. 2000. To see or not to see: The uses of photometers and measurements of reflective power. Perspective on Science 8: 1-28.

Chen, Xiang, and Peter Barker. 2000. Continuity through revolutions: A frame-based account of conceptual change during scientific revolutions. Philosophy of Science 67: S208-223.

Chen, Xiang. 1999. Instrumental unification: Optical apparatus in the unification of dispersion and selective absorption. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 30: 519-542.

Chen, Xiang, Hanne Andersen, and Peter Barker. 1998. Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions and cognitive psychology. Philosophical Psychology 11: 5-28.

Barker, Peter, and Xiang Chen. 1998. A critical bibliography of historical orientation philosophy of science. CSSS Working Papers 4: 1-41.

Chen, Xiang. 1998. Dispersion, experimental apparatus, and the acceptance of the wave theory of light. Annals of Science 55: 401-20.

Chen, Xiang. 1997. Thomas Kuhn's latest notion of incommensurability. Journal for General Philosophy of Science 28: 257-73.

Chen, Xiang.  1997. The debate on the polarity of light during the optical revolution. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 50: 359-93.

Andersen, Hanne, Peter Barker, and Xiang Chen. 1996. Kuhn's mature philosophy of science and cognitive psychology. Philosophical Psychology 9: 347-63.

Chen, Xiang. 1996. Recent progress in the studies of incommensurability. In Science, Philosophy and Culture, edited by H.X. Zhang, 169-90. Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Press.

Chen, Xiang. 1995. Taxonomic changes and the particle-wave debate in early nineteenth-century Britain. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 26: 251-71.

Chen, Xiang. 1994. How do scientists have disagreements about experiment?: Incommensurability in the use of goal-derived categories. Perspectives on Science 2: 275-301.

Chen, Xiang. 1994. The rule of reproducibility and its applications in experiment appraisal. Synthese 99: 87-109.

Chen, Xiang. 1994. Experimental skills and experiment appraisal. In Scientific Methods: Conceptual and Historical Problems, edited by P. Achienstein, 45-65. Melbourne, FL: Krieger.

Chen, Xiang, and Peter Barker. 1992. Cognitive appraisal and power: David Brewster, Henry Brougham, and the tactics of the emission-undulatory controversy during the early 1850s. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 23: 75-101.

Chen, Xiang. 1990. Local incommensurability and communicability. In PSA 1990, vol. 1, edited by A Fine, M. Forbes, and L Wessels, 67-76. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association.

Chen, Xiang. 1990. Young and Lloyd on the particle theory of light: A response to Achinstein. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 21: 665-76.

Chen, Xiang. 1988. Reconstruction of the optical revolution: Lakatos vs. Laudan. In PSA 1988 Vol. 1., edited by A. Fine and J. Leplin, 103-9. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association.

Zhang, Huaxia, and Xiang Chen. 1986. The structures of explanations and structural explanations. Journal of Natural Dialectics 4: 23-31.

Chen, Xiang. 1984. The discovery of the law of free fall. Bulletin of Physics 5: 55-59.

Chen, Xiang. 1984. Correspondence rules and the processes of cognition. Journal of Social Sciences 4: 14-20.

Chen, Xiang, and Li Li. 1984. Understanding the relations between structures and functions: A historical review. Exploration 6: 52-57.

Chen, Xiang. 1983. On the method of structural explanations. Information of Nature 4: 38-42.

Chen, Xiang. 1983. On the method of reductive explanations. Graduate Students Journal of Zhongshan University 2: 12-24.

Chen, Xiang. 1983. Comments on the problem of induction. Jianghai Academic Journal 5: 25-30.

 

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