中国传统科学的特点及其文化基因初探

A Preliminary Exploration of the Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Science and its Cultural Genes

科学是一种文化,不同的文化土壤会孕育出不同的科学形态。由于中西方文化之间存在着巨大差异,因此中西方科学之间也存在着巨大差异。中国传统科学的主要特点是:偏重于对自然现象的描述,偏重于经验总结,偏重于实用,偏重于用直觉和意会的方式理解问题,不重视对知识的检验和论证。这些特点与其传统的文化基因密切相关。

Science is a culture, so different cultural soils will give birth to different forms of science. As Chinese and Western cultures are different, so are Chinese and Western sciences. The main characteristics of traditional Chinese science are as follow: to lay particular stress on the description of natural phenomena, on the summarization of experiences, on pragmatism, and on understanding problems by intuitional and sensational method, rather than paying attention to test and demonstration of knowledge. All these characteristics are closely related to their traditional cultural genes.