五百年来科学技术发展的回顾与展望

A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OVER THE PAST 500 YEARS

该文主旨是回顾500年来的科学技术发展并展望它的未来。16至17世纪是科学革命的时代。在文艺复兴和宗教改革的思想环境下,通过复活古希腊科学传统,理论思维与工匠实践相结合,新的宇宙观和方法论被创立。这不仅为自然理论和技术原理的形成提供了基础,同时也为社会变革准备了思想武器。18世纪是技术机械化和人类理性化的世纪。由于牛顿科学思想和洛克哲学思想的传播,英国的工业革命、法国的政治革命和德国的哲学革命相继发生。这些革命思想的传播和相互影响,为19世纪科学的迅速发展提供了思想的和社会的条件。19世纪是科学理论化和技术科学化的世纪。热力学、电动力学、化学原子论和生物进化论,使物理科学和生物科学的发展都进入理论科学的时期,从而使技术成为"科学的"技术。因而也使关系模式发生从"生产→技术→科学"向"科学→技术→生产"的历史性转变。20世纪是大科学和高技术的世纪。世纪之初诞生的量子论和相对论的发展和相互影响,使物理学成为整个科学的基础。科学原理的技术运用几乎使全部社会生活科学化,并且这种运用似乎还远无止境,以信息技术为主导的高技术革命在形成之中。20世纪从"小科学"到"大科学"的转变,意味着科学总体范式的变革,并且在这种变革中科学新类型在悄悄滋长。

The gist of this paper is to review the history of science and technology over the past 500 years, and to forecast its future. It is noticed particularly that science has close relation with technology and society. And on the basis of this angle of view, the basic features of the development of science and technology in every century are described. The 16th and 17th centuries may be regarded as the epoch of scientific revolution. New world view and methodology were created by combining theoretical thinking with artisan's practice through reviving the scientific traditions in ancient Greece under the ideological condition of the Renaissance and the Reformation. So not only the bases for natural theory and technical principle were provided, but also the thinking weapons for reforming society were prepared. The 18th century marks the mechanization of technology and the rationization of mankind. Owing to the propagation of Newton's ideas on science and Locke's thought of philosophy, the English Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and the German philosophical revolution occurred one after another. The spread and interrelation of such revolutionary thinking provided ideological and social conditions for the rapid development of science in the 19th century. The 19th century is one of the theorization of science and the scientific transformation of technology. Thermodynamics, electrodynamics, chemical atomic theory, and biological theory of evolution formed in the middle of the century, carried physical and biological sciences to the period of theoretical science, thus turning technology into a 'scientific' one. As a result, a historic change, from the model 'production→technology→science' to that of 'science→technology→production', took place naturally. The 20th century is one of big science and high-tech. The development and interrelation between quantum theory and theory of relativity appearing in the early period of this century make physics the basis of all sciences. The application of scientific principle, which gives great impetus to the scientific transformation of almost the entire social life, seems to know no bounds thus far, while high-tech revolution with information playing a leading role is in full swing. The transformation from 'small science' to 'big science' means changing general paradigm of science, and in the change new-type science is growly quietly.