What are the directions that can be studied in Chinese and Western cultures?

Categories: Education, Science, >> Science & Technology.

Analysis: The most typical difference is the difference between the "inductive method" and the "deductive method". Western science is basically based on the deductive method, that is, a few basic assumptions or axioms are put forward first, and then on the basis of these basic assumptions, through rigorous logical reasoning, the ever-changing scientific laws in the world are derived.

Of course, these basic assumptions are also derived from practice. However, this science is very systematic and rigorous. For example, the first to use the deductive method to the extreme was Euclid's "Geometry Primitives", which only proposed a few basic axioms to deduce and prove all the theorems of plane geometry.

Another example is Newton's classical mechanics, which is only three theorems that can describe all mechanical phenomena. There is also Maxwell's system of electromagnetic equations, capable of describing all classical electromagnetic phenomena.

However, Chinese science is basically an "inductive method", that is, it sums up something from a large number of practices, but it does not systematize and formulaize it, so the breadth of application is not as great as that of Western science.

Moreover, the so-called scientific achievements in ancient China were overwhelmingly technological achievements. Science and technology are two levels, the aforementioned Western scientific theories are scientific level, and applying them to practical aspects is technology. The development of modern science and technology is basically this model.

In ancient China, in the absence of scientific theories, they basically relied on a large number of experiments, to put it bluntly, they tried out some useful things, but they could not form any theoretical system. For example, the four major inventions that we are proud of, although they are very useful in the process of quick regret, do not have any scientific content to destroy potatoes. The compass is just an electromagnetic phenomenon discovered by the ancients and applied to practice, but I don't know why, so the wide application of electromagnetism did not appear in China.

Muzheng's papermaking and gunpowder are completely through a large number of experiments, with almost no theoretical guidance, only empirical guidance. Printing, on the other hand, was entirely a technological invention and had little to do with science.

Yang Zhenning once proposed this difference between China and the West, and pointed out that the influence of the Book of Changes on the way of thinking of Chinese has made the way of thinking of Chinese have certain limitations, which is an important reason why modern technology has not been produced in China. However, many Chinese oppose this view, including some who have been educated in China's glorious ancient history since childhood, and some scholars who study the I Ching.

Although the influence of the I Ching on the way of thinking of Chinese is still inconclusive, the aforementioned differences between Chinese and Western technologies are indisputable facts. So the Chinese still have to work hard! You can't keep clinging to that little bit of ancient scientific and technological achievements.

Western scholars have proven that East Asians have the highest IQ, so Chinese are still very promising.