The Study On The Mohist Scientific Thoughts And Its Fate

From the point of the scientific thoughts and characters, we can safely conclude that the Mohism, which has systematically studied the mathematics, optics, mechanics and logics, has an unparalleled value in the history of Chinese culture. But we regret to find that the Mohism was suffered catastrophe since Qin dynasty, and slightly recovered in the mid-Qing dynasty. So, the author believes that we should not neglect its prolific scientific thoughts and peculiar fate which are presented in the Mohism.Firstly, the author dated back to the origins of the Mohist scientific thoughts. There are two respects. On one hand, there exists the textual relations between the book Mo Jing and the literature Kao Gong Ji. On the other hand, the Mohist scientific theories has close connection with the practice of production.Secondly, the author summarized the main achievements of the Mohist science. There are related from four aspects: the mathematics, the optics, the mechanics and the logics, which are undoubtedly standing the top of the world at the ancient times.Thirdly, the author attached great importance to the reasons for the Mohist scientific thoughts. There are two factor contributed to the reasons. One is the objective conditions in which the Mohism lived at that time. Both the practice of production and the political struggles are the dynamic motivations of the Mohist scientific thoughts. The other is subjective elements, which contains the natural philosophy and the epistemology. The subjective conditions are much more important than the objective ones. As we know, the subjective conditions are the much deeper internally causes which can stimulate the inherently logic development of the scientific thoughts.Then, the author related the frustrated fate of the Mohist scientific thoughts and analyzed the further reasons for such fate. We noticed that the Mohist fate experienced from the flourish to the decline and attribute the choice of the feudal monarchs to such fate. The author gave many explanations in details in order todemonstrate the significance of the monarches' choices.Finally, the author generalized the connotations which have referred above, and got a conclusion that the Mohist scientific thoughts still have contemporary value in the 21st century.