刍议恩格斯的“19世纪自然科学的三大发现”

On Engels' s "Three Great Discoveries of Natural Science in the 19th Century"

长期以来,"能量转化和守恒定律","细胞学说"和"进化论"作为"19世纪自然科学的三大发现"的"标准"答案一直广为流传。通过对中、英、德不同版本《自然辩证法》原著的考察发现:"19世纪自然科学的"这一定语并非源自恩格斯原文,而是中国老一辈学者在编译过程中加入的。本文从恩格斯"三大发现"提出的动机和意义入手,分析、论证这一提法的目的在于引出辩证唯物主义自然观,而不是要从自然科学史意义上来梳理19世纪自然科学的发展。由此,去理解爱因斯坦对《自然辩证法》手稿的评价,并指出当代青年学者对待经典应有的态度。

For quite a long time, there is a wrong belief in China which is considered ＂the Law of conservation and transformation of energy＂, ＂the cell theory＂ and ＂Darwin＇s theory of evolution＂ as the three great discoveries of natural science in the 19th century. By searching archives of different editions of the Dialectics of Nature in Chinese, English and German, found that the saying＂ the three great discoveries of natural science in the 19th century＂ was not in the original work, the attributive＂ natural science in the 19th century＂ was added by the Chinese translator in 1971 and 1984, it may change the original purpose of Engels which not use this case to do the research of history of science, but to make prove of the theory of dialectical materialism.