老普林尼《博物志》知识特征研究——纪念老普林尼诞辰2000年

A Study of the Knowledge Characteristics of Pliny the Elder’s“Historia Naturalis”——In Commemoration of the 2000th Anniversary of the Birth of Pliny the Elder

老普林尼是罗马帝国早期著名的博物学家,他所著的37卷本《博物志》是后世学者研究西方古代罗马帝国早期科技史、知识史和文化史的珍贵文献。从博物学复兴和博物学文化研究成为科学史显学的大背景出发,研究《博物志》所记录、描述之知识的特征。采用变焦视角展开讨论,首先分析老普里尼组织文本和排列归类的思路,探讨《博物志》中知识所具有的总体特征;然后选取书中的典型片段进行案例分析,挖掘具体条目所体现的知识特征。老普林尼对自然物进行朴素的描述和关联,强调自然物对人的实用价值,他开创了一种不同于亚里士多德等古希腊学者的具有罗马特色的自然探究传统,是西方两千多年博物学文化发展史上的重要一环。

Having“nature”in a broad sense as the subject,Historia Naturalis,written by Pliny the Elder,the most famous naturalist of the early Roman Empire,is the first attempt in Western history to describe and categorize the knowledge of nature and human culture in a single work.Based on textual analysis of reliable critical editions and translations of Historia Naturalis,this paper tries to understand the text from the perspective of cultures of natural history,clarify the characteristics of the knowledge recorded and described in this work and discover its value in terms of cultures of natural history.On the basis of an overview of the entire content of Historia Naturalis,this paper selects specific extracts and makes case studies to explore the knowledge characteristics of the Historia Naturalis as reflected in them.Pliny the Elder describes and related natural objects in a plain way,emphasizing their practical value to man.His idea of enquiring into nature in one work initiated a tradition of Roman-style natural history inquiry that differed from that of the ancient Greek naturalists such as Aristotle.Historia Naturalis has a lasting influence on the Western intellectual tradition and is an important part of the history of Western natural history for two thousand years.