《植物学》中的自然神学

Natural Theology in the Book Botany

19世纪中叶编译自林德利植物学著作的一部图书——《植物学》在中国出版,对中、日植物学发展均有重要影响。《植物学》中有丰富的但以前不大为人们重视的自然神学思想。《植物学》所依据的林德利的那部植物学著作中其实并不涉及自然神学,但《植物学》中的自然神学可以追溯到英国自约翰.雷到达尔文的自然神学传统。从更开放的心态来看,自然科学与自然神学的捆绑或科学与价值的结合不是一种缺陷反而是一件好事或者一种要求。

The book Botany excerpted, compiled and translated from John Lindley＇s botanical book was published in the mid-nineteenth-century China, which significantly influenced the development of botany in China and Japan. The rich but overlooked thoughts of natural theology in the book Botany in the literature of botanical history should be reinterpreted in a new scientific light or historiography of science. John Lindley＇s book upon which Botany was based actually made no mention of theology, but the scientific culture background permeated with natural theology in Botany can be traced back to the British tradition of natural theology from the time of John Ray down to Darwin. From a more open perspective on scientific affairs, the binding of natural science with natural theology in particular or the marriage of science with value in general is a virtue or a demand instead of a shortcoming.