THE ADVANCEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE ENRICHMENT OF LIFE: THE SCIENCE SOCIETY OF CHINA AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC, 1914-1930.

摘要

This thesis addresses several issues raised by the scholarly literature on science in modern China. First, it provides a detailed and focused account of the writings of Chinese scientists in the early Republic, a task which the existing literature has left largely unfulfilled. Second, it evaluates the claim that Chinese scientists (like Chinese intellectuals in general) have misunderstood science by either confusing it with technology, equating it with method, or falling prey to one or more varieties of scientism. Third, it examines the influence that American science had on the development of Chinese scientific thought and institutions. Fourth, it examines the extent to which Chinese scientists adhered to the values of the New Culture movement.; These issues are approached through an examination of the understanding of science articulated by members of the Science Society of China, the first and most important organization of Chinese scientists in the Republic. The members were part of a transitional generation of Chinese intellectuals whose understanding of science was shaped by both basic values and assumptions formed by their early classical education and by their latter education and exposure to science which was modern and largely western.; The work concludes that the members of the Science presented a complex and multi-faceted image of science which saw science as a type of learning which was at once cognitive, moral, practical, social. They did not confuse science with technology; rather they saw the scientist as a laboratory or field researcher whose prime motivation was the pursuit of truth. Nor did they fall prey to scientism. Although, they did argue that science could provide certain knowledge of the natural world, they did not see an exclusive role for science in education. Art and literature were equally important. Furthermore, although they did formulate a thorough critique of important aspects of traditional scholarship, they did not feel that Chinese tradition as a whole should be abandoned. Although this vision of science was informed by American examples and ideas, American science was not simply transplanted to China; it was given shape and tone by the Chinese context. Finally, the New Culture Movement was peripheral to the members' main concerns. They did not write for New Culture publications, share the movement's literary values, or its iconoclasm.