简论西方自然哲学的历史演变——兼论马克思和恩格斯的自然哲学贡献

A Brief Discussion of the Historical Evolution of Western Natural Philosophies——Also on the Contribution to Natural Philosophy Made by Marx and Engels

古希腊至中世纪的自然研究是与人事研究密切联系在一起的,显示出古代西方哲学具有自然哲学与文化哲学浑然不分的原始综合性特点。至17世纪上半叶,以弗兰西斯·培根的《新工具》和笛卡尔的《方法论》为标志,西方哲学中开始形成明确偏向自然哲学的研究传统。在现代西方自然哲学的历史演变过程中,出现了以弗兰西斯·培根为代表的经验型自然哲学、以笛卡尔为代表的理智型自然哲学、以马克思和恩格斯为代表的实践型自然哲学和以石里克等维也纳学派为代表的科学型自然哲学四种基本类型。马克思和恩格斯的实践型自然哲学以其基于实践唯物主义世界观的归纳与演绎相统一、形式逻辑与辩证逻辑相统一的逻辑理论,不仅丰富和充实了逻辑学的内容,而且拓宽了逻辑学的外延。维也纳学派的科学型自然哲学作为西方自然哲学在20世纪的历史形态,则表现出自然哲学有向文化哲学合流的发展趋势。

Natural explorations from ancient Greece to the Medieval times had been closely tied to the research on hu- man affairs, indicating the primitive characteristic of ancient Western philosophy that made no distinction between natural philosophy and cultural philosophy. In the first half of the 17th century, marked with Francis Bacon＇s Novum Organum and Descartes＇ Methodology, Western philosophy started to form a tradition clearly inclined to the study of natural philosophy. In the historical evolution of modern Western natural philosophy, there had been four basic paradigms： empirical natural philosophy represented by Francis Bacon, rational natural philosophy represented by Descartes, practical natural philosophy represented by Marx and Engels, and scientific natural philosophy represented by Schlick and other members of the Vienna School. The practical natural philosophy represented by Marx and Engels features the logic theory of the unity between induction and deduction based on world outlook of practical materialism and the unity between formal logic and dialectical logic. It not only enriched and solidified the content of logic, but also broadened the extension of logic. The scientific natural philosophy of the Vienna School was the historical existence of western natural philosophy in the 20th century, and showed the tendency of convergence of natural philosophy into cultural philosophy.