XU Zhu, Associate Professor in Department of Philosophy, ECNU. Research interests includes Epistemology, Philosophy of Action, Wittgenstein, and Philosophy of Social Science. The author of Understanding the Social: from Normativity to Mechanism (monograph published in Chinese) and several papers published both in Chinese and in English.WU Tong, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology (tenured) in the STS Centre, Tsinghua University. Research interests include philosophy of scientific practice, philosophy of system and complexity, and local knowledge. The author of The Melody of Growth: the Self-Organizing Evolution of Science (monograph published in Chinese) and many influential papers in Chinese philosophy of science and technology.

• List of figures List of tablesPostscript Introduction: towards philosophy of scientific practice 1 The origin of the concept of practice 2 Scientific practice: significance, types, and scopes 3 The nature of scientific practice 4 The nature of knowledge: local knowledge 5 Knowledge and power 6 The contextual normativity of scientific practice 7 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (I) 8 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (II) 9 Philosophy of scientific practice and relativism 10 Partnering the philosophy of scientific practice: the philosophy of scientific experimentation 11 New empiricism: a close relative of the philosophy of scientific practice 12 The starting point of scientific research: opportunity, question, or observation? 13 A new solution for an old problem: the relationships of observation, experiment, and theory 14 New studies on replicability of scientific experiments 15 Local knowledge (I): traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) 16 Local knowledge (II): Chinese theory of Fengshui 17 Local knowledge (III): ethnobotany 18 Conclusion: scientific practice in ongoing and unlimited process References Index

XU Zhu, Associate Professor in Department of Philosophy, ECNU. Research interests includes Epistemology, Philosophy of Action, Wittgenstein, and Philosophy of Social Science. The author of Understanding the Social: from Normativity to Mechanism (monograph published in Chinese) and several papers published both in Chinese and in English.WU Tong, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology (tenured) in the STS Centre, Tsinghua University. Research interests include philosophy of scientific practice, philosophy of system and complexity, and local knowledge. The author of The Melody of Growth: the Self-Organizing Evolution of Science (monograph published in Chinese) and many influential papers in Chinese philosophy of science and technology.

• List of figures List of tablesPostscript Introduction: towards philosophy of scientific practice 1 The origin of the concept of practice 2 Scientific practice: significance, types, and scopes 3 The nature of scientific practice 4 The nature of knowledge: local knowledge 5 Knowledge and power 6 The contextual normativity of scientific practice 7 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (I) 8 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (II) 9 Philosophy of scientific practice and relativism 10 Partnering the philosophy of scientific practice: the philosophy of scientific experimentation 11 New empiricism: a close relative of the philosophy of scientific practice 12 The starting point of scientific research: opportunity, question, or observation? 13 A new solution for an old problem: the relationships of observation, experiment, and theory 14 New studies on replicability of scientific experiments 15 Local knowledge (I): traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) 16 Local knowledge (II): Chinese theory of Fengshui 17 Local knowledge (III): ethnobotany 18 Conclusion: scientific practice in ongoing and unlimited process References Index

XU Zhu, Associate Professor in Department of Philosophy, ECNU. Research interests includes Epistemology, Philosophy of Action, Wittgenstein, and Philosophy of Social Science. The author of Understanding the Social: from Normativity to Mechanism (monograph published in Chinese) and several papers published both in Chinese and in English.WU Tong, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology (tenured) in the STS Centre, Tsinghua University. Research interests include philosophy of scientific practice, philosophy of system and complexity, and local knowledge. The author of The Melody of Growth: the Self-Organizing Evolution of Science (monograph published in Chinese) and many influential papers in Chinese philosophy of science and technology.

• List of figures List of tablesPostscript Introduction: towards philosophy of scientific practice 1 The origin of the concept of practice 2 Scientific practice: significance, types, and scopes 3 The nature of scientific practice 4 The nature of knowledge: local knowledge 5 Knowledge and power 6 The contextual normativity of scientific practice 7 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (I) 8 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (II) 9 Philosophy of scientific practice and relativism 10 Partnering the philosophy of scientific practice: the philosophy of scientific experimentation 11 New empiricism: a close relative of the philosophy of scientific practice 12 The starting point of scientific research: opportunity, question, or observation? 13 A new solution for an old problem: the relationships of observation, experiment, and theory 14 New studies on replicability of scientific experiments 15 Local knowledge (I): traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) 16 Local knowledge (II): Chinese theory of Fengshui 17 Local knowledge (III): ethnobotany 18 Conclusion: scientific practice in ongoing and unlimited process References Index