Talk About The Scientific Spirit From "J.Needham' Problem"

As a well-known question in the history of China-western competitive science, "J.Needham' Problem" has brought tremendous concern to the scholars' home and abroad since its proposal in the 1940s. After over half a century' s discussion and research, the academia has not formed unanimous and generally acknowledged view on "J. Needham' Problem", but through the comparison with final result of the scientific development course of China and western countries, people begin to pay close attention to the law of its own development of the scientific activity. This paper first introduces the historical background and research overview of "J. Needham' Problem" in detail, and enumerates the present domestic and international experts' analysis and views to "J.Needham' Problem". With a comparison between ancient China's scientific development and Chinese-Western traditional science, it concludes the direct and in-depth reasons of the backwardness of China's science and technology. Through the overview to the restricting and promoting factors, we find that the level and condition of scientific spirit will be affected directly or indirectly by a certain political system, economic structure, or ideology, cultural value, the internal and external factors in which science development is concerned. Scientific spirit, as the most direct factor closely related to the scientific activity, will promote or restrict the progress and development of science and technology. What kind of science spiritual atmosphere does it have, what kind scientific and technical development level does it have right away finally. So, to seek the in-depth reason of backwardness of China' s modern science and technology, we should pay close attention to the state and competenceof China' s scientific spirit.From different origins and development and scientific tradition of Chinese and Western science, a conclusion can be drawn: The science cannot leave scientific spirit; scientific spirit is implied in scientific method and thought; the depth and speed that science develops finally depend on the state of development of scientific spirit. Only if we judge the development of Chinese and Western science and technology in an all-round and practical way, could we realize the value of scientific spirit, could we really summarize the problems that we confront in learning advanced science and technology from the west, could we promote the overall development of China' s science and technology.