The Cultural Observation Of The Modern Transformation Of Mathematics In The Republic Of China(1912-1935)

The academic development in the Republic of China was a peak in Chinese academic history.It is the same with the development of mathematics.In the later period of the Republic of China(1936-1949),there was a research climax of modern mathematics in China.Many mathematicians gradually ascended to the peak of world mathematics,and some research achievements reached the world advanced level.We examine the development of mathematics in the later period of the Republic of China.In the early period of the Republic of China,the cultural change was drastic and the social trend of thought was surging.Under the background of the unprecedented prosperity of science and culture,Chinese traditional mathematics gradually completed the institutionalization process with the academic turn from “the study of the four parts” to “the study of the seven subjects”,and the modern transformation was initially completed.The modern transformation of mathematics in the early period of the Republic of China led to the fundamental transformation of the traditional Chinese mathematics in the academic,discipline,scholar,society and other aspects of the institutional construction.Most important of all,in the wave of modern academic transformation in the Republic of China,the academic community conducted profound theoretical reflection and philosophical review on mathematical thoughts such as mathematical essence,mathematical value and mathematical truth,and constructed a mathematical ideological and cultural form with unique cultural characteristics of The Times.The mathematics thought and culture in the early period of the Republic of China subverted the traditional Chinese mathematics concept and cognition,coupled and promoted each other with the modern transformation of mathematics,and also laid a solid cultural foundation for the upsurge of mathematics research in the period of the national government.Following the historical research path of academic moderntransformation,this paper takes “turning point ? content ? main body ?approach” as the main line to lead the whole paper,which is divided into three parts: introduction,main body(the first chapter is the turning point,the middle four chapters are the content,the last two chapters are the main body and approach)and conclusion.The introduction focuses on the purpose and significance of the research,the research status at home and abroad,the research ideas,research methods,innovation and shortcomings,as well as the concept to explain the content,focusing on the rationality and feasibility of the research.The first chapter is about the early period of the Republic of China mathematical modern transformation of the cultural background and the basic situation of the relevant content.The study of the modern transformation of mathematics in the Republic of China must be placed in the background of the social and cultural development,and must be familiar with the development of foreign mathematical trends.This chapter briefly introduces the situation of the scientific culture of the Republic of China and the trend of the world's mathematical thought.It focuses on the important signs of the modern transformation of the Republic of China and the important points of the completion of the systematization.The second chapter is about the essence of mathematics in the early period of the Republic of China.The essence of things can be best reflected in its definition,and the “meta-problem” of the essence of things can be explored from the definition.This chapter focuses on the historical evolution of mathematical theory in Chinese traditional mathematics and the morphology of mathematical theory in the early period of the Republic of China.The mathematical essence in the early period of the Republic of China embodies the characteristics of natural attributes,philosophical attributes and mathematical realism.The third chapter is about the content of mathematical epistemology in the early period of the Republic of China.Epistemology is the link to explore the essence of things.The academic circles of the Republic of China had aheated debate about whether mathematical knowledge could be recognized by human beings,among which Russell's mathematical agnosticism had the most profound influence.Influenced by the cultural effect brought by Russell's coming to China,mathematical agnosticism became the focus of this debate,and its characteristic of “nothing” and “no discrimination between truth and nonsense” also caused the scholars in the Republic of China to make use of materialist dialectics to challenge it.The fourth chapter is about the evolution of mathematical values in the early period of the Republic of China.Values are an important part of mathematical ideology and culture.Chinese traditional mathematics is “the end of the six arts”,which reflects a clear pragmatic orientation.After entering the Republic of China,the value of modern mathematics was re-recognized by the academic circle.At this time,mathematics was understood as the “foundation of science” and the “mother of science”.Centering on the value of mathematics,the academic circles of the Republic of China made extensive discussions on the role of mathematics in society,culture and life and its relationship with modern disciplines such as economics,statistics and philosophy.The fifth chapter is about the study of mathematical truth in the early period of the Republic of China.The study of truth is an important subject of mathematical philosophy.In the academic circles of the Republic of China,the conservative,progressive and self-satisfied characteristics of mathematical truth were summarized.The introduction of positivism makes the characteristics of mathematical truth challenged,and the relativity of mathematical truth and the tendency of mathematical axiomatism become the focus of academic debate.Kant's philosophy,positivism,axiomatism and other philosophical theories,non-euclidean geometry,limit theory and other mathematical theories interwoven and quoted each other,became the characteristics of the study of truth in the Republic of China.The sixth chapter is about the origin of the subject of mathematical ideology and culture in the early period of the Republic of China.Foreignstudents are the main body of the construction of mathematics ideology and culture in the early period of the Republic of China.Before the Republic of China,industry was the main direction for international students to choose the subject.In the Republic of China,western learning was continuously introduced by large-scale institutionalization,the importance of mathematics was fully recognized in the academic circle,and the number of mathematics students gradually increased.The returned students were not only the backbone of the modern transformation of mathematics in the Republic of China,but also the backbone of the ideological and cultural changes in mathematics,leading the development of the mathematical ideology and culture in the early period of the Republic of China.This chapter also takes Hu Mingfu,a typical representative of overseas students in mathematics,as the object of specific research,and Outlines the important role of overseas students in the ideological and cultural construction of mathematics in the early period of the Republic of China.The seventh chapter is about the dissemination of mathematical ideology and culture in the early period of the Republic of China.Periodicals are important carriers of cultural communication.The establishment of the journal of modern significance in China benefited from the missionary group.Some articles on mathematical culture were published in the periodicals before the Republic of China,but the number was small and had no special influence.In the early period of the Republic of China,the spread of mathematical ideology and culture reflected the typical characteristics of comprehensive periodicals,university periodicals and professional periodicals.Comprehensive periodicals such as science,young China and student magazine have become important communication platforms of mathematical ideology and culture.Foreign scholars came to China to study,which promoted the development of mathematics ideology and culture in the Republic of China.“Russell Monthly” is the beginning of this kind of periodical,is a very special cultural phenomenon.With “Russell Monthly” as the research material,we can observe the original situation of the spread ofmathematical thought culture through periodicals in the early period of the Republic of China.The conclusion is an overall retrospective of this article.It mainly includes the generalization and summary of the characteristics of mathematical ideology and culture in the early period of the Republic of China,the shortcomings of this paper and the aspects that still need to be worked on,the prospect of this paper and the research direction that needs to be paid attention to in the next step.