Research Of Mencius’ Thought On Science And Technology

Mencius is a representative ideologist of pre-Qin Confucian schools in China,and his treatise The Works of Mencius imply resourceful thoughts in science and technology,which are mainly manifested in the natural views involving the “unity of the man and nature” and “benevolence and love for common people and everything”;a wide array of social,political and ethical issues are actively demonstrated by feat of natural science-related knowledge;and abundant scientific thinking methods are presented in scholarly researches.However,foreign and domestic scholars studying Mencius’ thoughts mostly focus on the perspectives with respect to the morality,education,economy,politics and philosophy for a long time,and seldom touch upon Mencius’ s thoughts in science and technology,whereas the literatures systematically exploring the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology are incredibly rare.The connotations of the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology are the integration and unification of thoughts about the science and technology as well as philosophical and sociological thoughts for the science and technology in the text of The Works of Mencius.By drawing on the formation background and change process of thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology,it is eligible to comprehensively analyzes the contents of thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology,and reveal the values,scientific and technological pursuits and research methods covered in The Works of Mencius as well as the influence of these works on future generations.The basis of subject selected for the Study,domestic and overseas research statuses as well as significance and innovation of methodology are introduced in the Introduction.Chapter I analyzes the theoretical origin and era background of the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology by introducing his life and social &historical environments,and focuses on expounding the connotations of the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology.Chapter II mainly introduces the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology from three aspects involving the view of ecological nature,simple epistemology of science and concrete scientific viewpoint.The ecological natural view of “all things originated from the nature,and all people and things needed to return to the origin,“the nature and human beings’ sharing of similar properties,unity of the man and nature”,“timely cultivating without delaying farming,benevolence and love for common people and everything”,epistemology of science featured with the harmony between the transcendentalism and empiricism,epistemology between the comprehension and action or the contact and perception as well as the theory of epistemology and test between normal manifestation of truths and expediency.The thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology are also embodied in specific disciplines including the mathematics,logic,astronomy,water conservancy,agriculture,psychology,etc.Chapter III mainly introduces the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in technology from the perspective of specific technical view.Mencius proposed the teleology of technology attributed to the benevolence and righteousness,the technology subject initiative theory of skillfully using laws and sociological theory of technology performing respective duties,illustrated the agricultural technology thoughts of timely matching the farming season,the three-phase health preservation regimen of physical and mental integrity,and the architectural technology concept of sharing happiness with the folks.Chapter IV concludes that the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology is characterized with the following features including rich and diversified details,purpose of the nature and man compassion,practical policies for benevolence and eloquent &speechified language.It can be concluded on the basis that philosophical contributions of thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology are reflected in the thoughts of dialectics about “active action for correctness and mistake avoidance,the view of science for sedulous pursuit of the reason and view of truth for “truth exhibition with benevolence”.Chapter V intensively considers and explores practical significance of the thoughts of The Works of Mencius in science and technology,and reflects on the existence of individuals and the boundary of human survival & technology.It is absolutely concluded that the thoughts of Mencius on science and technology are limited under the background of the times then,that is his pedantic,profound and broad ideal is in conflict with common practice of society seeking quick success and instant benefits,and he failed to “persistently and enthusiastically unveil the reason” and present specific route for scientific and technological development.