近代科学未发生于印度与中国之原因——关于李约瑟难题之一项思想史诠释  

Why Modern Science Did Not Emerge in India and China:A New Philosophical Inquiry into the Needham Puzzle

作　　者：戴景贤 Dai Jingxian

机构地区：[1]清华大学国学研究院,北京100084

出　　处：《中山大学学报（社会科学版）》2024年第6期270-285,共16页Journal of Sun Yat-sen University(Social Science Edition)

摘　　要：李约瑟于世界科学史之整体诠释,提出“难解之谜”,使之成为研究者探索之对象,其基本观点在于:人类文明之科学发展,虽系基于世界范围内种种交流与积累所构成,为一集体之成果,然以“科学史”之角度而言,如何诠释历史之进程中“科学”与“技术”推动之必要环节,并阐明其关键性,成为必须处理之核心问题;故就此项诠释而言,必然同时关联于“科学思想”所以能产生突破之“内因”与“外缘”。以是“科学史问题”之最终解答,必然须涉入世界范围内之“文明史”。李约瑟之分项叙述之“科学史”研究,最终导向不同“文明进程”之比较,且于最终提出一重要之疑问:何以自伽利略起始之“近代科学”之突飞猛进,与其后出现之“工业革命”,皆仅肇生于近代欧洲,而未出现于印度与中国?尤其中国于14、15世纪之前,科学技术长期领先于西方,却不能有此突破,为一可异之事。此一属于现实之结果,虽已为史家所接受,视为乃西方文明发展中特殊因素所造成,无足称奇,然对于“科学史”之研究者而言,则仍应予以重视,不宜轻看。李约瑟“科学史之问”是否持续值得关注,从而有所谓“李约瑟难题”?端视质问者对于此一既属“科学史”,亦牵涉“文明史”之问题之理解深度。其中可能存在之探索角度,重要之方面大致有五:一属哲学史,一属专业之科学史,一属社会史,一属经济史,另一则属思想史。本文撰述之角度,即属上述五方面中,与“思想史”相关之部分,其内容包括“间接因素”与“直接因素”。In his overall interpretation of the history of science,Joseph Needham puts forward a grand question,known as“the Needham Puzzle”,making it the object of researchers to explore.Its basic argument is that the scientific development of human civilization,based on worldwide communication and accumulation,is a collective result,but in the perspective of modern science and technology,its revolutionary advancement occurred only in the West.This phenomenon is more difficult to comprehend and explicate than it appears to be.In order to give a satisfactory solution to the question,it inevitably involves more than one or a few perspectives.Thus Joseph Needham broke down his insightful research of the topic,guides his narrative in the world history of science to a more profound analysis through the comparison of different civilizations,and in the end,raised an important question as follows.As most experts recognize,before the 14th and 15th centuries,China’s science and technology led the world for a long time.But since Galileo Galilei started the initiation of“modern science”,and finally in later times initiated the“industrial revolution”,these remarkable achievements only originated in modern Europe,never appeared in India and China.What are the reasons for that?Although this is a realistic result which has been accepted by historians and is regarded as caused by the unique factors in the Western civilization,the researchers of the“history of science”should still pay attention to it and do not have it ignored.This puzzle evolves both in the study of history of science and in that of the history of civilization.Among these researches,there are roughly five important aspects of exploration:the history of philosophy,the history of science,the social history,the economic history,and the history of thought.The perspective of this paper belongs to the part related to both philosophical and intellectual history.

关 键 词：科学史 李约瑟 中国哲学 中国科技史 中国思想史 

分 类 号：K107[历史地理—历史学] N09[历史地理—世界史]