Studies On Feng-shui From The Perspective Of Philosophy Of Scientific Practice

Since last century, natural science has always been the focus in the research of philosophy of science. With the development of natural science, local knowledge has been increasingly marginalized, and Feng-shui (or Geomancy) serves as an example. The philosophy of scientific practice as an emerging field has come to the attention of researches; and it is field that highlights the local characters of scientific knowledge. Scholars within China have begun to research on local knowledge from this perspective of philosophy of science. My thesis focuses its research on Feng-shui activities against this backdrop, and tries to explore them as the formation and development of a typical Chinese local knowledge from the perspective of practice. This should provide the research of philosophy of science with a case-study of practical explanation.The research mainly uses as its theoretical foundation - in terms of the perspective and method - the viewpoint of philosophy of scientific practice in analyzing Feng-shui practices. It brings in the time factor, puts Feng-shui into a historical environment of"society, culture, people", and observes philosophically the interaction of all perspectives of Feng-shui activities in the historical context.First, it gives a retrospective study of the demarcation problems in philosophy of science and explains how under different criteria of science/pseudoscience Feng-shui activities may be regarded as scientific or pseudoscientific. The result of my research shows that it's difficult to acquire a precise, accurate and unified demarcation criterion of science. The hope of the latest advance on demarcation problems shows that we should see Feng-shui activities in specific historical and social context from various fields of vision, and make a detailed analysis of concrete problems that provides the basis of further analysis of the Feng-shui activities from the perspective of philosophy of science.Second, my thesis introduces the new perspectives of philosophy of scientific practice and Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK), attempts to re-examine the...