SPD2321 CHINESE CIVILIZATION

AND MODERN CONSCIOUSNESS

FROM THE WEST

LECTURE 7 WESTERN ENLIGHTENMENT I:

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
INTRUCTOR: DR. TERENCE LEUNG
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• The history of science during the Age of Enlightenment
traces developments in science and technology during the
Age of Reason, when Enlightenment ideas and ideals were
being disseminated across Europe and North America.
• Generally, the period of the ‘scientific revolution’ in the West
spans from the final days of the 16th century until roughly the
19th century, after the French Revolution (1789) and the
Napoleonic era (1799–1815).  the heyday of the scientific
revolution is 17th century
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• The scientific revolution was the emergence of modern
science during the early modern period, when developments
in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including
human anatomy) and chemistry transformed views of society
and nature.
• The scientific revolution saw the creation of the first
scientific societies, the rise of Copernicanism, and the
displacement of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Galen’s
ancient medical doctrine.
• By the 17th century and 18th century, scientific authority
began to displace religious authority, and the disciplines of
alchemy 煉 金 術 and astrology 占 星 術 lost scientific
credibility.
• 科學革命  16和17世紀科學革命進一步在啟蒙時代取得建制化及
權威化的成果  科學協會的成立，哥白尼日心說地位上升，以及
新知識取代傳統亞里士多德的自然哲學和蓋倫的醫學學說  到了
18世紀啟蒙時代，科學權威開始取代宗教權威，同時煉金術和占星
術也失去了科學的信譽
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• While its dates are widely disputed, the publication in 1543 of
Nicolaus Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres is often cited as marking the beginning of the
scientific revolution.
• Following the radical scientific thesis of Copernicus, Galileo
Galilei, who has been called the “father of modern
observational astronomy,” the “father of modern physics,”
and "the father of modern science,” gestured a leaping
contribution to the scientific investigation of motion through
an innovative combination of experiment and mathematics.
• The completion of the scientific revolution is attributed to the
“grand synthesis” of Isaac Newton’s 1687 Principia, that
formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• 科學革命的開始日期，史學家仍有爭議。儘管科學革命的具體
時間仍有爭議，比如有人認為科學史的萌芽開始於14世紀，也
有人認為化學和生物學的革命開始於18、19世紀。
• 但公認的是，在16至17世紀之間，物理學、天文學、生物學、
數學、醫學以及化學的思想都經歷了根本性的變化，由中世紀
的觀點轉變為現代科學的基礎，不論是在各個獨立的學科內，
更是在對整個宇宙的認知中。
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• 在1543年，尼古拉斯·哥白尼出版著作《天體運行論》，這經常
被當成是科學革命的起點。從1543年，一直到1632年伽利略出
版《關於托勒密和哥白尼兩大世界體系的對話》，這段時間常
被認為是科學革命的第一階段。
• 在這個階段中，復興了古希臘與羅馬時期的舊有科學知識，被
稱為是科學復興（Scientific Renaissance）。
• 在伽利略之後，則是現代科學的興起，艾薩克·牛頓在1687年發
表《自然哲學的數學原理》後，經常被認為是科學革命的完成
期。
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• Aristotle’s cosmology that placed the Earth at the center of a
spherical hierarchic cosmos.
• The terrestrial and celestial regions were made up of different
elements which had different kinds of natural movement.
• The terrestrial region, according to Aristotle, consisted of
concentric spheres of the four elements—earth, water, air,
and fire.
• All bodies naturally moved in straight lines until they reached
the sphere appropriate to their elemental composition—their
natural place.
• 地球上的四種元素都有其自然的地方；地球是宇宙的中心，接著是
水、空氣、然後是火。
• 這些元素也會進行自然的運動，不需任何外界的動力。
• 因此人的軀體會沉入水中、水會隨著空氣蒸發、蒸發後的水氣隨著
雨降下、火可以在空氣中燃燒，這些元素有著永恆的運動循環。
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• In the meantime, the celestial region was made up of the
fifth element, aether, which was unchanging and moved
naturally with uniform circular motion.

• 世界由五大元素構成:
• 土：又冷又乾燥，對應現代固體概念。
• 水：又冷又潮濕，對應現代液體概念。
• 火：又熱又乾燥，對應現代熱量概念。
• 空氣：又熱又潮濕，對應現代氣體概念。
• 以太：構成天球和天體（恆星和行星）的神聖物質。
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
The ‘Three Giants’ of Western Scientific
Revolution:
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) published On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543, which
advanced the heliocentric theory of cosmology.
• The Copernican Revolution 哥白尼革命 was the paradigm
shift from the Ptolemaic model of the heavens, which
described the cosmos as having Earth stationary at the
center of the universe, to the heliocentric model with the
Sun at the center of the Solar System.
• 尼古拉斯·哥白尼，1543年出版了《天體運行論》，提出了日心
說理論，質疑天主教的〝地球中心說〞，史稱〝哥白尼革命〞。
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) improved the telescope, with which
he made several important astronomical observations, including
the four largest moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the
rings of Saturn, and made detailed observations of sunspots.
• Galileo was also one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state
that the laws of nature are mathematical.
• 伽利略·伽利萊，改進了望遠鏡，並對金星和木星的衛星進行了準確的
觀測，於1610年發表觀測結果。通過理論分析與實驗推翻了被奉為法
度的亞里斯多德的力學體系並建立了近代力學。
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• Isaac Newton (1643–1727) built upon the work of Kepler and
Galileo.
• He showed that an inverse square law for gravity explained the
elliptical orbits of the planets, and advanced the law of universal
gravitation 萬有引力定律.
• His development of infinitesimal calculus 微積分 opened up new
applications of the methods of mathematics to science.
• Newton taught that scientific theory should be coupled with
rigorous experimentation, which became the keystone of modern
science.
• 艾薩克·牛頓，1687年7月5日發表的《自然哲學的數學原理》裡提出的
萬有引力定律以及他的牛頓運動定律是經典力學的基石。牛頓還和萊
布尼茨各自獨立地發明了微積分。
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6_i0dInceg (Scientific
revolution) (10 mins)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHUWP9zu4W8 (Copernicus and
the Scientific Revolution - Past is Present) (16 mins)
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• Positivism (實證主義) holds that valid knowledge (certitude
or truth) is found only in this derived knowledge.
• Verified data (positive facts) received from the senses are
known as empirical evidence; thus positivism is based on
empiricism 經驗主義.
• Positivism also holds that society, like the physical world,
operates according to general laws.
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• 實證主義又稱實證論，其中心論點是：事實必須是透過觀察或
感覺經驗，去認識每個人身處的客觀環境和外在事物。
• 實證論者認為，雖然每個人接受的教育不同，但他們用來驗證
感覺經驗的原則，並無太大差異。實證主義的目的，在希望建
立知識的客觀性。
• 實證主義反對神秘玄想，主張以科學方法建立經驗性的知識。
這種思想恰巧與柏拉圖的理型論相反，柏拉圖認為只有觀念才
是真實的，感官都是虛幻的。
WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION?
• However, the benefits of science were NOT seen
universally in the Western world.
• For example, Jean-Jacques Rousseau criticized the
sciences for distancing man from nature and not
operating to make people happier.
• By the end of the 18th century, the scientific revolution
had given way to the “Age of Reflection.”  i.e.
Romanticism in science
SCIENCE, UNIVERSALISM
AND DETERMINISM: A
CROSS-CIVILIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS
• Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued
empiricism and rational thought, and was embedded with
the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress.
• So, while modern science is always associated with the
West, it is also privileged as something ‘universal’ that
goes beyond national boundaries.
• Science and technology have been used by Eurocentric
scholars to explain why the West is superior to the non-
West.
SCIENCE, UNIVERSALISM
AND DETERMINISM: A
CROSS-CIVILIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS
• Some Eurocentric historians claim that science and
technology determine the development of human society,
and they are the prime mover in all epochs.  thus help
justifying Western imperialism, colonialism and cultural
hegemony over the non-Western countries
• Technological determinism is always turned into an
ideological determinism, focused on the superior rationality
of Europeans or Westerners.
• A lot of technological innovations are claimed to be
European inventions, the technological development of non-
Europe has been largely ignored.
• The European superiority in science and technology is
attributed to the rationality of European mind.  The West is
modernized through science and technology, and then non-
West should and will follow its path.
SCIENCE, UNIVERSALISM
AND DETERMINISM: A
CROSS-CIVILIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS
• Joseph Needham and his associates after WWII did an extensive
research on the history of technology in ancient China.
• They found out that Europe advanced technologically beyond
Asia mainly after the beginning of industrial revolution  Europe
did not even begin to forge ahead of Chinese civilization in
technology or science until the 17th century
• Needham’s main question: given China’s scientific traditions and
its technological superiority over Europe until the 17th century,
how did China fail to give rise to modern science?
SCIENCE, UNIVERSALISM
AND DETERMINISM: A
CROSS-CIVILIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS
• Westerners claim that the Chinese might invent a lot
of things in an initial form whereas the Europeans
put these things to work and further develop them.
 rigorous theorization for further researches
• Hence, China, in prior ages, progressed somewhat,
but then they stopped, starting up again only when
Europeans brought new ideas.  i.e. breeding “the
China formula”
SCIENCE, UNIVERSALISM
AND DETERMINISM: A
CROSS-CIVILIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS
Main Arguments of Toby Huff’s book on Chinese and
Western Views of Science:
1. Difference between science and technology  episteme
認識論 (Western abstraction  science) vs. techne 技藝
(Chinese practicality  technology)
2. Institutional setting  legal reform and autonomy, and
separation of secular and religious gave rise to
intellectual freedom and rationalism in the West
3. Impediment 障礙 to modern science in China  pan-
moral virtues, centralized government, standardized
exam, no autonomous public sphere
PROBING QUESTIONS
• The important question is: not how and why Chinese
technological progress stopped, BUT rather how and why
these advances happened?
• Many scholars only ask the first question – they fall into the
old doctrine of the Oriental stagnation 東方停滯 (e.g. Karl
Wittfogel’s thesis on Oriental despotism) vis-à-vis the
Western progress, and they reinforce the ideology of
Orientalism (i.e. backward and primitive society that needs
Western teaching)
• For instance, Max Weber claims about the reasons for
Chinese lack of progress were: Chinese personality traits
(effects of Confucianism); city (no free city and no real
bourgeoisie in China); landowning (no real private property);
bureaucracy and the imperial state were not ‘rational’ and so
they held back the society from progress
PROBING QUESTIONS
• Then, how is hi-tech appropriated for China’s practical
needs today? Does technology change China or does
China change the nature of technology of its use? Is the
utilitarian view the only value of Chinese thought? Could
the Internet constitute new thing(s) for China?
• Perhaps, China did NOT simply stagnate, it only slowed
down; uneven progress in human civilization is indeed
always the norm (i.e. we should respect all these cultural
differences in the course of global modernization)