Philosophy and Thinking Methods

Abstract

From the 8th century B.C. to the 2nd century B.C., the wisest men of all mankind were born almost at the same time, for example, Confucius, Sakyamuni, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, who made this period the so called “Axis Age”. Ancient Greek philosophers mainly considered the relationship between human beings and things (the objective world). Philosophy and science were not separated and natural philosophy developed. Ancient Indian philosophers mainly considered the relationship between human beings and god (transcendental world) and transcended the world of man’s experience. Ancient Chinese philosophers considered not only the relationship between human beings, but also that between human beings and nature (the relationship between nature and human beings), emphasizing harmony and a win-win situation. The fusion of Chinese culture (changing the unsuitable part, absorbing the advanced part from the outside and strengthening the adaptive ability) absorbs the advanced culture from outside on the basis of adhering to Chinese culture, and constructs a more advanced culture to serve the people, just like adding an alloy into steel to forge a better steel alloy. For example, every bit of progress in Chinese history can be seen in the course of cultural integration, such as the Qin, Han, Tang and Yuan dynasties, which combined various cultures, especially the promotion of harmony among Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and so on, and the contemporary integration of Marxism and Western science and technology has achieved inclusiveness in both Eastern and Western civilizations and ways of thinking, but the Ming and Qing dynasties did not grasp the general trend and they lag behind the pace of the Western Industrial Revolution, that is, reform and opening-up and grasping the general trend will lead to development, while conservative, closed and misjudgment of the era will lead to backwardness. Therefore, the British scholar Joseph Needham’s (1900–1995) question “Although ancient China made many important contributions to the development of human science and technology, why didn’t science and the Industrial Revolution take place in modern China?” can be easily understood, as long as the state adheres to the state policy of “the combination of reform and opening-up, grasping the general situation, centralized planning and overall promotion”, the key is to grasp the general situation and the united front and the Party’s construction, and there will be continuous progress and the problem will be solved.