This paper will discuss the relation between the concepts of nature and culture and their intricate interdependency, focusing on modernity. Moreover, it will analyze the dichotomy that has historically emerged and its...This paper will discuss the relation between the concepts of nature and culture and their intricate interdependency, focusing on modernity. Moreover, it will analyze the dichotomy that has historically emerged and its implications. Human beings have had different conceptions about what is natural and what is non-natural throughout their history. Before Modernity we did not conceive nature as being a different ontological reality, we did not perceive it as being separated from us. After modernity everything changed, and we began to see nature as a mere object. Nature became, then, a representation, like a painting on a wall. Our contemporary world vision, Weltanschauung, was formed mainly during the 16th and 17th centuries. There was, at that time, a considerable change in the way we perceived and described the world. This new mentality and this new form of representing the cosmos provided the basis for our new way of thinking. They were the substrate upon which our modern paradigm was erected. The world＇s conversion in an image only became a reality thanks to technology. But this change happened only because of the paradigm shift originated in the 17th century. Technique always has been a way to articulate how （and what） we think. With the Greek, technique （technd） was, at first, an extension of the physis. Thus, the technique was a way of being instead of a way of thinking. After the paradigm shift in the 17th century （a metaphysical change, in the very way we connected to the world）, the human being left his former place. Perhaps would be even better if we talked about nature and culture as being as a hybrid. What, at the source, was natural, through the flows of production and consumption, undergoes transformations and becomes something that is not natural anymore but, at the same time, not completely artificial either. Our world, once divided between the social and the natural, becomes a space where a constant process, a continuous flow, is constantly happening. From that dichotomy between something good and something bad arises a dialectic, in which we no longer can see any division whatsoever.展开更多
The ancient idea of Heavenly Punishment confused natural phenomena with social issues,which resulted in Zhang Heng’s tragedy in his later years and seismoscope. The instrument might have been lost in the end of the E...The ancient idea of Heavenly Punishment confused natural phenomena with social issues,which resulted in Zhang Heng’s tragedy in his later years and seismoscope. The instrument might have been lost in the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. A series of extremely serious chaotic social events caused by war took place,such as a fire in Luoyang,forging coins by destroying copper wares,relocation of the capital,sharp population decrease,and the destruction of the Ling Observatory. Zhang’s scientific thought and successful practice had played an important role in ideological enlightenments at the primary stage of modern seismology at the end of the nineteenth century. There is a glorious course of"innovation—inheritance—re-innovation"of scientific and technical development from the inception Zhang Heng’s seismoscope to the modern seismograph invented by Milne,et al.展开更多
文摘This paper will discuss the relation between the concepts of nature and culture and their intricate interdependency, focusing on modernity. Moreover, it will analyze the dichotomy that has historically emerged and its implications. Human beings have had different conceptions about what is natural and what is non-natural throughout their history. Before Modernity we did not conceive nature as being a different ontological reality, we did not perceive it as being separated from us. After modernity everything changed, and we began to see nature as a mere object. Nature became, then, a representation, like a painting on a wall. Our contemporary world vision, Weltanschauung, was formed mainly during the 16th and 17th centuries. There was, at that time, a considerable change in the way we perceived and described the world. This new mentality and this new form of representing the cosmos provided the basis for our new way of thinking. They were the substrate upon which our modern paradigm was erected. The world＇s conversion in an image only became a reality thanks to technology. But this change happened only because of the paradigm shift originated in the 17th century. Technique always has been a way to articulate how （and what） we think. With the Greek, technique （technd） was, at first, an extension of the physis. Thus, the technique was a way of being instead of a way of thinking. After the paradigm shift in the 17th century （a metaphysical change, in the very way we connected to the world）, the human being left his former place. Perhaps would be even better if we talked about nature and culture as being as a hybrid. What, at the source, was natural, through the flows of production and consumption, undergoes transformations and becomes something that is not natural anymore but, at the same time, not completely artificial either. Our world, once divided between the social and the natural, becomes a space where a constant process, a continuous flow, is constantly happening. From that dichotomy between something good and something bad arises a dialectic, in which we no longer can see any division whatsoever.
基金sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(40644019)the Special Found of Scientific Research Program for "the Optimization and Design for Reconstruction Models of Seismoscope",China Earthquake Administration
文摘The ancient idea of Heavenly Punishment confused natural phenomena with social issues,which resulted in Zhang Heng’s tragedy in his later years and seismoscope. The instrument might have been lost in the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. A series of extremely serious chaotic social events caused by war took place,such as a fire in Luoyang,forging coins by destroying copper wares,relocation of the capital,sharp population decrease,and the destruction of the Ling Observatory. Zhang’s scientific thought and successful practice had played an important role in ideological enlightenments at the primary stage of modern seismology at the end of the nineteenth century. There is a glorious course of"innovation—inheritance—re-innovation"of scientific and technical development from the inception Zhang Heng’s seismoscope to the modern seismograph invented by Milne,et al.
