说原始儒学与近代科学的会通

On the Link between Primitive Confucianism and Modern Science

原始儒学与近代科学虽然是不同的两门学问,但在精神方面颇有可相会通之处。首先,原始儒学有"务实、明理、利用"的态度,"求是、求美、求善"的精神,此与现代学问精神相符合。其次,现代科学是人文的事业,孔子"人能弘道,非道弘人"的态度与爱因斯坦的"物理……只能经由放心的发明获取"的说法,及现代物理学"天先于人,而人先于天理"的哲学是相通的。基于这一体认,本文乃对《中庸》的"天命之谓性,率性之谓道,修道之为教"一句提出全新的诠释。最后,本文也探讨了过去中国科学落后的原因,指出发展新文化须是采撷西方文化中能与固有文化兼容而优良的部分,扬弃其余,近代科学与原始儒学应是且应能相互补充的。

This paper argues that whereas primitive Confucianism and modern science are entirely different disciplines of scholarship, they share concordance in several spiritual aspects. First of all, primitive Confucianism values the attitudes of sincerity, reason and utilization with the spirit of pursuing for principle, eleganceand goodness, which are parallel to those of modern scholarship. Secondly, modern science is an enterprise ofhumanism; Confucius' s attitude as exhibited in his saying'It is the man that builds up the principles, and notthe vice versa,'is concordant to the Einstein's notion as expressed in'Physics …… can only be attained byfree invention,'and is further compatible to the modern philosophy of science as expressed in'Nature is earlierthan man, but man is earlier than natural science.'This paper presents thus a renewed interpretation about theenunciation at the beginning of the Doctrine of the Mean:'The human nature is of natural endowment; the principles follow the human nature; and cultivation means the betterment of the principles.'In the end, the paperexplores also the reasons for the lagging of development of science in China in the past, and points out that to develop a new Chinese culture we need to pick and assimilate those favorable parts of the Western culture that are compatible with the traditional good ones while discarding the rest. Modern science and primitive Confucianismshould and may in fact complement each other.