中国科学史的社会学重建——评析席文的科学史研究

The History of Chinese Science and Its Sociological Reconstruction: on Sivin's History Studies of Science

席文的"文化整体"通过考察古代科学的资助雇佣模式,指出研究者具有在利益导向下的动机,而自然和政治作为工具性资源存在着相互利用,即《黄帝内经》、《九章算术注》及气、阴阳、五行等思想利用政治修辞获得知识合法性,同时也构成了统治者实现政治目的的工具资源。席文将古代科学视为特定历史时期社会政治的建构物,构成了SSK编史学的中国版本。这种"人类主义"在自然/社会的二元论框架下用社会实在论取代自然实在论,其历史解释则根本上忽视了中国科学的生成特性,将天人合一、主客双泯的熔融贯通之态拆解。新近的"后人类主义"的历史生成论超越传统二分法,为中国科学史研究提供了有益的方法论启示。

Through inspecting the patterns of state sponsorship or social employment, ＂cultural manifolds＂ identified the researchers＇ motivation directed by interests, and reciprocal using of nature and politics as instrumental resources, such as, Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor-Mathematical Methods in nine chapter, and the ideas of the Qi, yin-yang, and the five-phases, which have made use of political rhetoric to gain knowledge legitimacy. Therefore, these knowledge were the resources and tools for rulers to achieve political purposes. As a result, the ancient Chinese science became the construction of social and politics in specific historical periods. This make ＂cul^re manifolds＂ a Chinese version of historiography of SSK. Such humanism replaced natural realism with social realism, which did not jump out of the dichotomy of nature and society. Its historical explanation is basically ignored the generation characteristics of Chinese ancient science which means the unity of heaven and humanity and the integration of subject and object. Recent post-humanistic view of historical configuration have gone beyond the traditional dichotomy, which provides us very useful methodological inspirations for the history studies of Chinese science.