Research On The Nature Of Machines In The Perspective Of Philosophy Of Science

Humans began to make and use tools from its birth,who have invented and produced numerous machines in the evolutionary process,from original Stone-tools and Crockery to recent Steam Engine or Generator, till the wide-used Mobile phones and Computers.These machines not only extend People’s arms and legs, but also expand the Body and Mind, thereby magnifying a person’s physical strength and mentality.Historically, many philosophers, combining machines with people, had tried to understand the Life and Nature. For example, the philosopher Descartes points out that animals are machines, La Mettrie advocates man is a machine. Today, there are some scholars who re-investigate the relationship between man and machines, such as Burks,a computer scientist and philosopher,proposes "man=robots"thesis which based on Logical Mechanism. There have plenty of changes from Descartes and La Mettrie to Burks.In the past, we focused on the machine itself, from history of science and technology, economics, or philosophy. However, the machine, as human’s creation, should be investigated through exploring the relation between man and machine. This article is an attempt to adopt this approach to understand the nature of the machine, from the perspective of philosophy of science, focusing on:(1)we grasp the historical evolution of the machine through the etymological analysis of the concept, and discus the common and individual cognition to machines in different civilizations systems and different periods.(2)we make the classification of the machine and the depiction of the artificiality, pointing out that we cannot get the nature of machines through merely the type and function, unless the relationship between man and machine in further.(3)we put forward that the implementation and operation of information or symbols is the essence of the cognition and control process to machines, studying two kinds of people (users and manufacturers),which based on the dual nature of the technological artifacts. (4) From the cognitive perspective, we unveil the nature of machines, arguing and concluding that the the machine/technology is to show the nature of the people, yet human nature is to create and use symbols and realize them.In this way, the development of the machine/technology is in fact history of knowledge generation through the externalization of human mind constantly.