Is Fengshui Science or Superstition？ A New Criterion for Judging the Value of Knowledge Systems  

作　　者：ZHANG Yong-feng DAI Wei 

机构地区：[1]Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

出　　处：《Journal of Literature and Art Studies》2013年第1期61-69,共9页文学与艺术研究（英文版）

摘　　要：Fengshui, which can be translated as Wind-Water literally in English, is an ancient Chinese system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of Qi, and whose favorable or unfavorable effects are taken into account when sitting and designing buildings. Similar systems exist in many other cultures such as Vastu Shastra in India, which consists of precepts born out of a traditional and archaic view on how the laws of nature affect human dwellings. Although prospered in ancient society, modem reactions to Fengshui are mixed. The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience states that principles of Fengshui are quite rational, but folk remedies and superstitions have been incorporated into its eclectic mix. In this paper, we do not distinguish Fengshui and other similar systems between science and superstition, but try to propose a criterion for judging whether a knowledge system is valuable, and if so, to whom it is valuable. We will end up arguing that, a knowledge system satisfying the criterion of relatively true property is valuable at least to its community of believers, and the problem of whether a knowledge system has greater value is essentially a problem of whether it is relatable to other knowledge systems, so as to expand its community of believers

关 键 词：philosophy of science SUPERSTITION FENGSHUI relatively true property 

分 类 号：TU-023[建筑科学—建筑理论] B99[哲学宗教—宗教学]