han对《Chinese Thought, Society, and Science》的笔记(1)

第1页

The Chinese have given the world paper, printing, porcelain, gunpowder, the mariner's compass, and other inventions important in the history and development of science. Yet it was Europe, not China, that experienced the scientific and technological revolution that transformed the world from the 17th century onward. In this challenging work, Bodde examines the cultural requisites for science and technology in early China and other pre-modern civilizations.
Bodde does not focus on Chinese science and technology per se but on the wide range of intellectual and social forces at work in China that may have favored or disfavored science and technology in pre-modern China - forces, Bodde argues, overwhelmingly humanistic; the written classic language known as Literary Chinese; concepts of time and space; religious attitudes; theories of government and society; moral and social values pertaining to sex, individualism, militarism, and competition; and Chinese attitudes toward nature.
Comparisons and contrasts are drawn using similar factors in Western and other civilizations, thereby adding significantly to our view of the Western world, past and present, as well as that of China. Most impressive is Bodde's familiarity with original sources and his insistence on providing his own translations of often highly technical work, making availabe to the reader valuabe source material.