Journal of East China Normal University (Philosoph ›› 2015, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (6): 10-28.doi: 10.16982/j.cnki.1000-5579.2015.06.002

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Language’s Restriction on Logic and Science: Why Science Cannot Developed in China?

ZHU Xiao-Nong   

  • Online:2015-11-15 Published:2015-12-13
  • Contact: ZHU Xiao-Nong
  • About author:ZHU Xiao-Nong

Abstract: “Needham puzzle”, that is, “why modern science hadn’t developed in China”, is a weak and even fake question. A strong version of this question shall be why science cannot develop in China, and its true version shall be why science can develop in Europe. In Einstein, one of the prerequisites for the development of science is deductive logic. Furthermore, a language with a subject-predict structure is necessary for the development of deductive logic because a logical proposition is embodied in a subject-predict structure. The grammatical features of Chinese language are different from those of Indo-European languages: A sentence is mainly built in a topic-explanation structure, of which the subject-predict structure is an particular case; grammatical units at all levels, including word, phase and sentence, share a similar structure; the main function of sentence elements is to make comparison. These grammatical features have determined that the Chinese way of reasoning is dominated by analogy and comparison. Previous discussions about “Needham Puzzle” focus on political, economic, cultural, geographical, philosophical and other external causes. However, it won’t be meaningful to discuss external causes until the internal cause has been discovered. This paper puts forward a theory that there are three stages (language stage, logic and form science stage and empirical science stage) with six phases for science to develop. In spite of the ubiquity of the subject-predict structure, it is really random to take it as the only legitimate sentence structure for reasoning; in other words, it is accident for logic to emerge to some extent. However, it is necessary to realize the importance of the subject-predict structure, promote the non-mainstream subject-predict structure in a natural language as the only legitimate sentence structure in reasoning and argumentation, and thus advance science. In this respect, China was among the best in the world in the last one hundred years. If we attach importance to this in education, we will gain greater achievement in the new century.