ScientificTradition

China’s Scientific Tradition and the Great Inertia: 

China’s Scientific Tradition and the Great Inertia San-pao Li, Ph.D. Department of Asian and Asian American Studies California State University, Long Beach April 24, 2003

Outline: 

Outline The definition of science Scientific elements in Chinese tradition Factors contributing to China’s failure to achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Concluding Remarks

Outline: 

Outline The definition of science Scientific elements in Chinese tradition Factors contributing to China’s failure to achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Concluding Remarks

The Definition of Science: 

The Definition of Science What is “science”? Latin origin: scientia (knowledge) Scientific = knowledge-making More than a body of rationally gained knowledge….. An activity directed at altering and increasing that very body of knowledge…..

The Definition of Science: 

The Definition of Science Begins as an extension of common sense Seeks a higher, rational unity, a deeper understanding which is unknown to common sense Establishes a conceptual order in the chaos of perceptual experience Never-ending search for invariants

The Definition of Science: 

The Definition of Science Dissolubity (divisibility) Superposability

The Definition of Science: 

The Definition of Science A scientist transcends the physical world and roams at an intellectually higher and abstract realm Must also be capable of descending back to our realm of experience and subjecting to the examination of systematic empiricism, hard fact, and cold logic

Galileo Gililei(1564-1642): 

Galileo Gililei (1564-1642) Theory of inertia Each of his manipulations was guided by thought, each of his thought by experimental evidence

Isaac Newton(1642-1727): 

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Found a precise mathematical use for concepts like force, mass, and inertia Gave new meanings to the old terms such as space, time, and motion in an equally mathematical language

Outline: 

Outline The definition of science Scientific elements in Chinese tradition Factors contributing to China’s failure to achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Concluding Remarks

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Joseph Needham Science and Civilisation in China

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition China’s scientific concepts are hidden in Daoist philosophy Daoist thinking developed as a counter-tradition in China

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Quantitative Science concerned primarily with numbers and its application to physical reality concrete and empirically provable

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Qualitative Science yin-yang, the five elements or dynamic forces and other verbal concepts abstract but powerfully rational

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Astronomy The earliest record of the motion of the five planets, A.D. 1-A.D.5 armillary sphere (Han dynasty) Su Song’s astronomical clock

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition The Chinese time was not a succesion of quantitatively equal and qualitatively indistinguishable units.

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Mathematics gave birth to the European “Scientific Revolution” in the 17th-century The Nine Chapters (Han dynasty) The Calculating Methods (Han)

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Mathematics 3.14 64/625 < pi >3.14 169/625 in A.D. 263 considered as “insignificant art of literary composition” it cultivates little, if at all, one’s moral character

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Medicine Medical Book of the Yellow Emperor On Typhoid (3rd century, 113 prescriptions) Hua Tuo & Bian Que (Han dynasty) Human vivisection (11th century) Circulation of blood by William Harvey in 1618

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) “Printing, gunpowder and the compass: these three inventions have already changed the face of the entire world and the condition of things. The first is concerned with learning, the second with warfare and the third with navigation. The changes in these three areas will give rise to innumerable discoveries in other areas and no matter what empire, religion or constellation or human affairs; no human influence will be as great as that of the discovery of these mechanisms.

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition The Four Inventions Compass Gun powder Paper Printing

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition Zheng He’s Seven Voyages 1405-1433

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition The Gutenberg Bible, ca.1455

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition: 

Scientific Elements in Chinese Tradition

Outline: 

Outline The definition of science Scientific elements in Chinese tradition Factors contributing to China’s failure to achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Concluding Remarks

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Why, if China advanced so far so early, did it fall behind in modern times?

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Scientia contemplativa vs. scientia activa et operativa

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Cultural factors Institutional factors Philosophical factors Methodological factors Other factors

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Cultural factors Sinocentric view the backview mirror order and harmony….. Avoid disorder and innovation bureaucracy

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Cultural Factors It is the Chinese culture itself that absorbed most of the people’s energy and inhibited their inquisitive spirit.

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Institutional Factors The Civil Service Examination

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Philosophical Factors Daoist love of nature True knowledge does not lead to the quest for a first cause or for an irreducible atom….. But to the self-transformation whereby man becomes one with the cosmos. Aesthetic vs. scientific

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Philosophical Factors Moist logic and empiricism Space=that which covers diff. Places Duration=that that extends over different times Cause=the obtaining of what a thing can be Circle=that which has equidistant radii from its center

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Methodological Factors Methods of inquiry Criteria of truth

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” CERN: particle collisions create tiny fireballs 400 million times as hot as the sun, spraying out new matter.

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Methodological Factors Methods of inquiry Criteria of truth

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” The Chinese method of inquiry was a synthetic one…. Its criterion of truth was its compatibility with the transcendental principles of the immutable one. The Western…basically an analytical one and its criterion of truth was its precision, exactness, and verifiability.

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution”: 

China’s Failure to Achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Other Factors absence of private scientific groups etc. etc.

Outline: 

Outline The definition of science Scientific elements in Chinese tradition Factors contributing to China’s failure to achieve a “Scientific Revolution” Concluding Remarks

Concluding Remarks: 

Concluding Remarks Chinese claimed no necessity of science.

China’s Scientific Tradition and the Great Inertia: 

China’s Scientific Tradition and the Great Inertia San-pao Li, Ph.D. Department of Asian and Asian American Studies California State University, Long Beach April 24, 2003

Thank you!: 

Thank you! Your comments and questions are welcome!