Famous Problem
Introduction to the Problem
Why did capitalism and modern science originate in Western Europe rather than China or other civilizations like Joseph Needham? This is the famous Needham mystery. Needham's question is actually: why modern science and technology and industrial civilization were not born in China, which was the most technologically and economically developed and prosperous country in the world at that time. Europe has experienced a dark period of religion for a thousand years. The ancient classics of Greece and Rome were also destroyed by book burning in the European Middle Ages. Europe revived Greek and Roman culture from the ancient Greek and Roman books preserved in the Arab Empire, and at the same time digested and absorbed the traditions of Chinese civilization. Achievements in science and technology, industry, institutions and literature and art gave birth to modern science and technology and industrial civilization - globalized earth civilization.
From Marco Polo’s travels to Columbus’s discovery of the New World, the Renaissance and the study of Eastern civilization started in Europe. From the birth of Newton in 1643 to the start of the Industrial Revolution with the Watt steam engine in 1765 and the end of the American War of Independence in 1783, Europe and the United States entered the era of industrial civilization; however, in 1840, China entered the Opium War period. Around 1840, mechanized production in Britain had basically replaced handicraft production. In 1831, British scientist Faraday discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction. In 1847, the Siemens-Halske Telegraph Manufacturing Company was established, ushering in the era of electrification. From the birth of Marco Polo to the beginning of the electrification of the Industrial Revolution, Europe has finally surpassed China after about 600 years of hard work.
Problem statement
Needham's problem is a two-paragraph statement: Needham's first paragraph is: Why did the ancient Chinese in China between the first century BC and the sixteenth century AD? The degree of development of science and technology far exceeds that of Europe at the same time? Why did China's separation of politics and religion, selection system, private school education and hundreds of schools of thought not appear in Europe at the same time?
The second paragraph is: Why did modern science not originate in China, but in the West in the seventeenth century, especially in Europe after the Renaissance?
Representational significance
The "Needham Problem" is very thought-provoking. It is like a complex "higher-order equation" in the kingdom of science before the world. As we all know, China is a world-renowned ancient civilization that has made proud achievements in science and technology. In addition to the four major inventions that have attracted worldwide attention, there are as many as 100 scientific inventions and discoveries that are leading the world. American scholar Robert Temple once wrote in the famous book "China, the Land of Civilization": "If the Nobel Prize had been established in ancient China, the winners of various prizes would undoubtedly belong to China. People." Of course, this is impossible.
However, since the mid-17th century, China's science and technology have been in decline and have fallen into trouble. According to relevant information, from the 6th century AD to the early 17th century, China's share of the world's major scientific and technological achievements has been more than 54%. By the 19th century, China's share dropped sharply to only 0.4%. Why did China and the West experience such a huge gap in science and technology?
Joseph Needham and China scholar Zeng Bangzhe inspected China and Europe in the 1980s and 1990s, and proposed that modern Western science, industrial revolution and modern art are the results of Chinese science and technology, culture, system and thought. Basically, without these achievements of China, there would be no modern Western civilization. The so-called Western civilization since the European Renaissance has actually formed a civilization that is different from ancient Greece and Rome, or has integrated the essence of Eastern civilization, especially Chinese civilization. A global cultural model of an earth civilization - purple civilization - was formed later. Modern astronomy started at the southern and northern ends of the European Silk Road. Rogier Bacon gave birth to medical chemistry experimental methods through the combination of Greek alchemy and Chinese alchemy. Therefore, he proposed the combination of Chinese and Western medicine to form a systematic psychology. and other systems science paradigms [1], thus forming a two-dimensional science of experiments and systems methods, and will lead to the arrival of systems medicine, systems life science, systems bioengineering and other eras in the 21st century. At the same time, systems biology was advocated internationally in the late 1990s. With the development of science, systems biology, engineering, systems medicine, etc. are rapidly emerging around the world at the beginning of the 21st century.
Solution
According to Zeng Bangzhe’s point of view, the key to solving the problem – the problem of scientific paradigm? Comte's positivist philosophy, Dampier's history of science, etc., as well as philosophy of science and sociology of science, etc. are disciplines devoted to the study of this question - that is, to answer the question of what science is, what is often called the birth of the scientific method - usually Bacon summarized inductive logic and experimental methods. If we don’t first understand what science is, we can’t answer why science was born in modern Europe, not ancient Europe, nor modern China. What elements of ancient Europe and China contributed to the development of modern science, and what are the sources of the conditions and elements that constitute the scientific structure and produce scientific paradigms?
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Needham's own efforts
Needham not only raised questions in "History of Chinese Science and Technology", but also spent many years and a lot of energy , has been trying hard to find the answer to this problem.
Although the answer he sought was not systematic and profound, and even he was not satisfied with it, it left us with a trail of exploration and provided valuable thinking results for the solution to this difficult problem. The answers Joseph Needham got from the perspective of scientific methods are: first, China does not have a view of nature suitable for scientific growth; second, the Chinese are too practical, and many discoveries are stuck in the empirical stage; third, China's imperial examination system stifled the People are interested in exploring the laws of nature, and their thoughts are bound to ancient books and fame and fortune. "Learning and excellence leads to officialdom" has become the first pursuit of scholars. Needham also specifically pointed out that Chinese people do not know how to use numbers to manage, which is a good criticism of China's Confucian academic tradition that only pays attention to morality but not quantitative economic management.