Title: Climbing a tree to catch fish : some reflections on Plato, Aristotle, and China
Abstract: Scholarly opinion differs on the number of scientific traditions that developed in the history of mankind. Frits Staal (1993: 16) is of the opinion that there are three such traditions: the West Eurasian tradition which includes the European and Islamic scientific traditions, the Indian tradition, and the Chinese tradition. The Indian cultural tradition, as the Greek, and to the exclusion of the Chinese, is characterized by the accentuation of formal logic. This made some scholars claim that only two rational traditions can be differentiated: the Western and the Indian. We further may not overlook the impact of cultural (philosophical) borrowings in genuine developments. Some scholars have claimed that, e.g., Greek philosophy is indebted to Indian philosophy. Richard Garbe (1897: 39-46) ascribes a definite Indian influence to Pythagoras (6th. century BC) via way of Persia. Jean Przyluski (1932: 286) has laid emphasis on the Iranian borrowings in both the Greek and the Indian culture. This would practically reduce the number of scientific traditions to two: the Indo-Greek tradition and the Chinese tradition. For the Chinese tradition, we further have to take the impact of Indian Buddhism into account.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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