Research On Outlook Of Science Of Yizhi Fang

Yizhi Fang, late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, is one of the most distinguished scientists, he unified the traditional spirit of science of China with part of the western concept of science, and established the" study of measuring nature", the outlook of science injected vitality for the transition, from ancient to modern, of China's science.On the one hand, Yizhi Fang succeeded the outward-looking spirit of the rationality of science in the theory of investigating into the reason of everything for the purpose of extending one's knowledge to the utmost, and on its guidance, he adhered to investigate extensively into natural phenomena, so as to find out the law of them. On the other hand, he broke through ethical restraints of the traditional Neo-Confucianism and divided physic and governance, and thought that the "theory of investigating into the reason of everything for the purpose of extending one's knowledge to the utmost" (namely "study of measuring nature") was to explore the law of the material world, that is to say, all objective things were targets of scientific research. Yizhi Fang criticized and succeeded the traditional theory of investigating into the reason of everything for the purpose of extending one's knowledge to the utmost; What's more, he also transformed and absorbed critically the science brought by missionaries from the west, thus his unique outlook of science shaped up. The main contents of the outlook of science are summed up in the following passage: First, all of academic activities in the world were divided into three categories: "physic", "slaughtered reason", and "to the utmost reason". "Slaughtered reason" includes social ethics and politics, etc, similar to today's social science. "Physic" refers to "study of measuring nature" researching contradictory change and attribute of things, similar to today's natural science and applied science. "To the utmost reason" means "to-several" researching the most universal law of all things in the world, similar to today's philosophy. Yizhi Fang held that "study of measuring nature" and "to-several", (namely science and philosophy) had the close relationship, and science was the root and foundation of philosophy. Second, the scientific outlook of skeptic and positivism. Fang Yizhi maintained that the skeptic was a major force of scientific development in the spirit of science; it was the essential condition of scientific research which began with the skeptic for the conclusions of the known. Third, the number outlook of scientific knowledge. Yizhi Fang thought that the natural world was composed of "degree-number" and the movement and change of "degree-number" of things provided and controlled the change of the law, and all changes in the world were "number has it". So he tried to realize the mathematical relationship description from "number" to "reason", and ultimately wished to achieve a "principle system of mathematical deduction of natural philosophy". Fourth, the world was able to be known, the object of scientific understanding was the intrinsic nature and law of the objective material world, the mechanism of scientific understanding was the "consistence of heart and thing", the ultimate goal of the scientific understanding was to transform the world. Fifth, the scientific method of modern significance. Yizhi Fang promoted the method of mutual combination of induction and deduction, and created a "road" from "number" to "reason" and valuing scientific experiments, which made the traditional science of China have the factor of enlightenment of modern science, thus Chinese and western science realized the first combination. Sixth, the outlook of open-unification. Scientific research should be open, and the only way to scientific research is to swallow anything and everything uncritically and take the best, only in this way did better promote the development of science.To a certain extent, the outlook of science of Yizhi Fang changed the traditional outlook of real learning, and promoted the trend of real learning of the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, it also provided the ideological preparation and conditions of understanding for the transition, from natural philosophy form to modern science of experiment, of ancient science of China. But it also has its own limitations: the "study of measuring nature" served for his philosophy not purely for science; he emphasized that experiments and observations were the foundation of scientific research, but his experiments are not controllable and operable; Yizhi Fang presented the outlook of mathematical harmony of nature and number of knowledge, but such thinking was not always entirely put into practice in specific research of science, only staying on the level of mathematical description for nature and knowledge, not to mention real combination of experiment and mathematical method. Yizhi Fang regarded dialectical logic of traditional Chinese philosophy and image-number as the foundation of the methodology of scientific research and thought of science as the extension of image-number theory, thus this impeded the application of formal logic in scientific research and further delayed, to a certain extent, the pace of transition from ancient science to modern science of experiment. In sum, the "study of measuring nature" of Yizhi Fang still does not completely divorce from natural philosophy morphology, like ancient science, with intuitive, speculative and speculative nature.Outlook of science of Yizhi Fang entirely rooted in the traditional Chinese philosophy. He firmly believed in image-number theory and thought of science as the extension of image-number theory. He was devoted to the doctrine of "western science rooted in China", holding all of western humanities and natural sciences entirely rooted in the traditional Chinese culture, in other words, western culture rooted in the traditional Chinese culture. Through analysis for science and technology works of Yizhi Fang, we can find that primitive on Qi of materialism and dialectics are the philosophical foundation of outlook of science of Yizhi Fang.