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  • Overties Riumphs Hinese Cientific Radition: of The

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    The document discusses the differences between modern Western science and ancient and medieval Chinese science. It summarizes that 1) modern science developed principles like experimentation and mathematics-based hypotheses that made theories provable, while ancient Chinese science was more closely tied to its environment and not provable, 2) Chinese science had strengths in fields like mathematics, astronomy, engineering and biology through inventions and observations but differed from the West in its philosophical leanings toward materialism and algebraic mathematics rather than geometry, 3) scientists and engineers in China were part of society rather than separate from it as they were in the West.

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    The document discusses the differences between modern Western science and ancient and medieval Chinese science. It summarizes that 1) modern science developed principles like experimentation and mathematics-based hypotheses that made theories provable, while ancient Chinese science was more closely tied to its environment and not provable, 2) Chinese science had strengths in fields like mathematics, astronomy, engineering and biology through inventions and observations but differed from the West in its philosophical leanings toward materialism and algebraic mathematics rather than geometry, 3) scientists and engineers in China were part of society rather than separate from it as they were in the West.

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    9 views15 pages

    Overties Riumphs Hinese Cientific Radition: of The

    Uploaded by

    ian_971
    The document discusses the differences between modern Western science and ancient and medieval Chinese science. It summarizes that 1) modern science developed principles like experimentation and mathematics-based hypotheses that made theories provable, while ancient Chinese science was more closely tied to its environment and not provable, 2) Chinese science had strengths in fields like mathematics, astronomy, engineering and biology through inventions and observations but differed from the West in its philosophical leanings toward materialism and algebraic mathematics rather than geometry, 3) scientists and engineers in China were part of society rather than separate from it as they were in the West.

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    of 15

    Poverties and Triumphs

    of the Chinese
    Scientific Tradition
    Modern Science
    VERSUS
    Ancient and Medieval
    Science
    Modern Science
    Modern science developed only in Western Europe at the time of Galileo in the
    late Renaissance

    o Developed the fundamental bases of the


    structure of the natural sciences as we have
    them today
    • Application of mathematical hypotheses to Nature
    • The full understanding and use of the experimental
    method
    • The distinction between primary and secondary qualities
    • The geometrisation of space
    • The acceptance of the mechanical model of reality.
    Ancient and Medieval Science

    oTied closely to the ethnic environments in


    which they had arisen.

    oThe intrinsic and essential vagueness of


    hypotheses of primitive or medieval type
    always made them incapable of proof of
    disproof.
    THE FACE OF
    SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    IN TRADITIONAL CHINA
    Mathematics

    • Chinese mathematical thought was always


    profoundly algebraic

    • 12th to 14th centuries A.D., the Chinese school


    led the world in the solution of equations. The
    distinction between primary and secondary
    qualities
    Astronomy

    • TheChinese were the most persistent and


    accurate observers of celestial phenomena
    anywhere before the Renaissance
    Physics

    • Optics, acoustics and magnetism


    • Chinese physics was faithful to a prototypic
    wave theory.
    Mechanical Engineering

    • Development of iron and steel technology in


    China.
    • Hydraulic engineering was always prominent in
    China.
    Martial Technology

    • The
    first appearance of gunpowder occurs
    among them in the ninth century A.D.

    • Development of explosive weapons.


    Biology

    •Many agricultural inventions were arising from


    an early time.

    •The greatest pioneers of the techniques of


    inoculation
    CONTRASTS BETWEEN
    CHINA AND THE WEST
    • Philosophia perennis of China was on
    organic materialism.
    • Mathematical thoughts and practices are
    algebraic
    • Wave particle antithesis
    CHINA

    WEST
    •Inclined a priori to field theories
    •Mathematics – geometric
    THE SOCIAL POSITION OF
    SCIENTISTS AND

    ENGINEERS IN

    TRADITIONAL CHINA
    INVENTION
    AND

    LABOUR POWER

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