大学与西方近代科学的兴起

Universities and the Rise of Modern Western Sciences

近几十年来科学史的书写发生了较大的转变,把西方近代科学的兴起放到更为广阔的社会-文化史境当中来理解科学家的思想、行动与知识构建,其中有一个重要的因素开始被学术界所重新认识,那就是中世纪出现的、近代早期遍布欧洲的大学在近代西方科学兴起中所扮演的角色。近代西方科学的进步,并非游离于大学组织之外的理性科学巨人与大学之中顽固保守分子之间斗争的结果,而是与已有的大学组织存在密切的关系。大学作为近代欧洲社会广泛存在的知识和文化传承机构,并非完全站在科学家培养、科学创新活动和科学思想产生的对立面,而是在促进科学思想萌芽、孕育科学巨人、传承科学成果、推动普世公认的科学理论体系形成过程中发挥了巨大的作用。

In recent decades,the writing of scientific history has changed greatly.The rise of modern western sciences has been put into a broader social cultural history to understand the thought,action and knowledge construction of scientists.The academic circles have emphasized the concept of the role of universities as one of the important factors,which emerged in the Middle Ages,and spread all over the Europe in the early modern times with the rise of modern western science.The progress of modern western science is not the result of the struggle between the rational scientific giants who is separated from the university organization and the persistent conservatives in the university,but it has a close relationship with the existing university organizations.As a knowledge and cultural heritage institution in modern European society,universities have played an important role in the cultivation of scientists,scientific innovation activities and the production of scientific ideas,and also played a huge role in promoting the development of scientific ideas,breeding giants of science,inheriting scientific achievements and promoting the formation of universally recognized scientific theory system.