"needham Question" To Explore

Needham's Puzzle is a famous problem in comparative history of science beˉtween the orient and the occident.It has very great academic value and practical sigˉnificance.Academic circles,domestic or overseas,have been paying close attention to the puzzle since1940s.Now,there are about two kinds of fundamental opinions:the answer to the puzzle and the challenge to it.No matter how these opinions are,they all can't comprehend correctly the puzzle without a standard text.So the thesis,at first,bases on full hitorical datu and finds out a historical clue of the puzzle as text and,further,clarifies different language expressions of text in different periods.Eventually,the thesis offers a standard text to answer the puzzle.Besides,basing on the above research,three opinions as follows,of no significance,of logical contradicˉtion and of revision,all are rebuted so as to uphold the puzzle's rationality. In the second part,the thesis adopts comparative method and answers the puzzle preliminarily,both from"internal history"and from"external history".In the"internal history",tradition of science,thought of science and research method of sciˉence,which are main factors of the interior of science,are discussed through brief inˉvestigation on history of science.These interior factors have dialectical characters and have their own advantages and disadvantages in the different historical periods of sciˉence.Therefore,they can answer the two questions of the puzzle.In the"external history",the thesis analyzes historically three social factors as exterior factors of sciˉence,such as structure of economy,system of politics and type of culture.The thesis advocates that the exterior factors of science also have dialectical characters,but also have great significance for the answer to the puzzle. However,the above work is only a specific research which can't completely anˉswer the puzzle and can't explain actual situation of science as entirety.Therefore,the thesis at last advocates such conclusions as follows.Firstly,dialectical unity beˉtween the inferior and the exterior is objective law of the development of science.It is also the fundamental principle to answer the puzzle.Secondly,the development of science has no equilibrium.Finally,science can't advance more without the combiˉnation of synthesis-creativity-transcendence.