Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - The fundamental difference between ancient eastern science and western science
The fundamental difference between ancient eastern science and western science
When the ancient emperors offered sacrifices to heaven, they looked up at the images in the sky, and when they looked down, they looked at the laws on the ground, the products of birds and beasts, which were in harmony with the heavens and the earth, and took what was near and what was far away, so they started gossip to communicate the virtues of the gods and the feelings of all things.
Since Fuxi painted eight diagrams, Chinese civilization has a long history of 5,000 years. Later, Lao Tzu thought that everything in the universe was an organic whole with its own laws of formation and evolution. Man should follow the evolution law of heaven and earth, heaven and earth, and Tao should follow the evolution law of heaven and earth, and Tao is nature. Confucius' doctrine of the mean pursues neutrality, the position of heaven and the education of all things.
This has created a profound oriental science and culture, the core of which is the innate nature of learning from nature, the natural way of harmony between man and nature, and the acquired golden mean of harmony, difference and impartiality.
Since then, the oriental scientific form has taken holism as its scientific thought, the essence of things as its scientific object, intuitive understanding or analogy as its scientific method and pragmatism as its scientific structure, thus creating a splendid oriental scientific civilization.
two
Democritus's atomism in ancient Greece established the concept of cosmic composition and the scientific thought of reductionism. Euclid's Elements of Geometry created an axiomatic scientific architecture. Descartes founded the deduction method based on mathematics; Bacon established induction based on experience; Galileo, the father of modern science, established modern science on the basis of experiments.
Since then, with reductionism as the scientific thought, with the shape of things-structural shape and motion shape as the research object, with intuitive observation or experimental induction as the scientific method and axiomatic form as the scientific structure, a wonderful and brilliant western scientific civilization has been created.
three
However, a series of failed wars and humiliating treaties in the late Qing Dynasty, the western powers not only defeated the body of the people of China, but also defeated the spirit of the people of China. China people's extreme pride has dropped from the supremacy of China to the extreme loss. In this state of extreme loss of self-confidence, they have produced crazy and excessive behaviors, denying everything, overthrowing everything, completely abandoning eastern science and culture and fully accepting western science and culture. They regard western science as truth and regard it as a criterion for judging right and wrong.
It is under this judgment thought that people have the following cognitive errors.
One is that there was no science and technology in ancient China. For thousands of years, China, who has invented thousands of kinds and has been far ahead in science and technology, should say that there is no science and technology, which is simply strange. Behind all technologies, there are certain scientific ideas and theories, depending on whether they are used spontaneously or consciously.
Second, taking western science as the standard, ancient science in China was simple, primitive, backward and decadent.
Third, some people emotionally think that ancient science in China is good, and blindly link eastern science with western science. Mechanically, it seems that it is good to touch a little western science, for example, blindly equating Laozi's Tao, 123, Yin and Yang and the five elements with the basic particles and fields in the West.
Fourthly, it is neither fish nor fowl to incorporate the eastern scientific theory into the western scientific system and blindly transform it with western scientific standards, which is called modernization but westernization, because the eastern and western sciences are two completely different scientific forms, and they can only be used for reference and comparison, and cannot be mechanically copied.
four
People often say that we should follow the laws of nature, but do western science and technology follow the laws of nature? It challenges the laws of nature everywhere, uses them to serve itself, satisfies people's endless greed, causes great damage to everything in the world, and even natural and man-made disasters emerge one after another.
People argue that science has two sides, the key lies in people's use. For example, a kitchen knife can be used to cut vegetables and kill people, which shows that scientific and technological practice has two sides like a kitchen knife. This is a wrong view. Kitchen knives are generally used to cut vegetables, except for a few perverts who kill people. However, the application of western technology has brought noise, pollution, radiation, climate warming, river disappearance and ozone hole.
Is western science the truth? Why did it do so much harm to the world? Why did 5,000 years of oriental science not bring any harm to the world?
All concrete theories described in language are artificially created to be close to the real world, not the truth of the real world itself.
Western science starts with form, while eastern science starts with essence. Therefore, westerners pursue similarity with the real world, while orientals pursue similarity with the real world.
Western science attaches importance to the movement form of things and has been seeking the first driving force. Who gave the initial impetus to the movement of all things, so westerners attach importance to the external causes of things.
Oriental science attaches importance to the evolution of things, which is determined by the inherent nature of things, so orientals attach importance to the internal causes of things.
With more advanced tools and equipment, western scientific theories have a clearer and deeper understanding of the forms of things-structural forms and movement forms, and the theories are constantly being revised, updated and expanded, so western Renye Fang is constantly denying the past.
Oriental scientific theory pays attention to the essence of things and depends on human understanding. The theory has reached the highest level from the beginning, so the orientals are constantly nostalgic.
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The essential difference between the eastern and western scientific forms lies in their different views on space and time.
Space represents the existing form of everything in the universe, the structural form and motion form of everything in the universe in the evolutionary cycle; Time represents the irreversible evolution of everything in the universe. Where did this form of everything in the universe come from and where will it go? In other words, time represents the essence of everything in the universe.
In ancient China, time and space had the same status, and the universe was an inseparable unity of space and time.
Westerners believe that time is the product of the movement of things in space, and time is reversible, ignoring the iron law of time.
Westerners attach importance to expansion in space, while orientals attach importance to eternity in time.
six
All concrete theories described in language have their own time and space scope, and there is no irrefutable universality. To judge the greatness of a theory, one is whether it is beneficial to mankind in the long run and whether it brings real happiness to mankind, that is, from the perspective of time; Second, in terms of the scope of application, the bigger the theory, the wider the scope of application, that is, from the perspective of spatial vision.
Both eastern science and western science have their scope of application, and it is wrong to exceed it.
Among all the inspection standards, the time old man is the only one that is the most fair and objective.
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The space for human existence is limited, but time is infinite.
Westerners attach importance to the expansion of space and material possession, constantly upgrade tools to expand the functions of the human body, and take a road of externalization of material science and technology evolution.
This externalizes the law of human form to material products, so that material products have some functions of human beings.
Orientals attach importance to the eternity of time and spiritual cultivation, improve the function of human body through cultivation, and take a road of internalizing the evolution of spiritual human body.
This internalizes the essential laws of the universe into the human body, making people's functions as boundless as the universe.
Everything in the universe has its own laws of formation and evolution. On the premise of satisfying basic material desires, people should not pursue external material desires excessively, but should pay attention to people's inner world and improve their self-cultivation.
In order to meet the basic material needs, people should behave externally, follow the natural laws of things, follow the golden mean, and should not take extreme measures.
eight
The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is firstly the political, economic and military rejuvenation, and secondly the rejuvenation of Chinese culture. Without the revival of Chinese culture, everything ahead is a castle in the air and will not last long. The core of all cultures is its science and culture.
A thorough understanding of the roots and essence of science and culture in the East and the West will bring about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, welcome the arrival of the second rejuvenation of mankind, and have a clear direction for the future evolution of mankind.
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