From The Different Orientation Of Science Popularization Function To Compare Chinese And Western Science

This paper sketches the history of development of popular sciencein the West, and points that popular science and modern scienceappear in the same time. Galileo was not only the founder of modernscience, but also the initiator of popular science. On these bases, thispaper summarizes the five main functions of popular science: thefunction of getting support, the function of enlightening the thought,the function of sharing science, the function of entertaining the publicand the function of understanding science. Then, this paper discussesthe specific performance of these five functions in the history of popularscience in the West. In the face of the history of popular science inChina, this paper chooses three landmark events as the specificsamples, which are the translating of “Evolution and Ethics”, thepublishing of “A Hundred Thousand Whys” and the rising of “ScientificSquirrels”. Finally, this paper takes the scientific community in thewestern history as a breakthrough point to compare the differencesbetween popular science in China and the West. In addition, this paperexpounds specific performance of the five functions of popular sciencein China, and then it discusses the origin and social impact of the viewof science with Chinese characteristics. The fate of the popular sciencein China is also closely related with this view of science.