26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



IV. Causes of China's Backwaedness 



Some of the major causes of China's backwardness in science 

 become apparent when we compare her philosophical method with that 

 which has characterized modern western inquiry, and to set this com- 

 parison in stronger relief let us glance at some of the salient aspects of 

 modern scientific knowledge, both as to method and as to content. 



Some Salient Aspects of Modern Scientific Knowledge. — 



A. As to Method. 



1. The inductive method of philosophical inquiry, supplemented at 

 times by the deductive. The study of many particular cases and the 

 process of drawing a general conclusion based on observation, and the 

 extension of the general principle thus deduced to individual cases not 

 actually observed. Aristotle developed inductive logic, but William 

 Gilbert of Colchester, the founder of the science of electricity and 

 magnetism, first successfully applied the principles of inductive philos- 

 ophy which later received such wide development under Francis Bacon. 

 The ampliative inference of Gilbert and Bacon is to be distinguished as 

 philosophical or real induction, in contradistinction to formal or logical 

 induction. Philosophical induction has been the guiding star of all 

 modern scientific effort and is responsible in no small measure for the 

 remarkable progress thus far achieved. To-day the countersign of 

 science is " method." 



2. The spirit of accuracy in observation and the constant effort 

 finally to express all observations in terms of the three fundamentals — 

 length, mass and time. The coordinated and careful regulation of 

 standards of measurement by all civilized governments under the guid- 

 ance of leading physicists. Modern science is synonymous with 

 " accuracy." 



3. The development and wide application of the very powerful 

 instrument of mathematical analysis, by which otherwise impassable 

 fields of research are clearly traversed and made to yield their quota 

 to our general theory of natural phenomena. The electro-magnetic 

 theory of radiation in all its details is a most striking example. 



B. As to Content. 



1. Extension of the universe in space by the researches of the 

 telescope, and of the microscope as well. 



2. An all-pervading medium by which radiation, as manifested 

 by either its chemical, optical, thermal or electric and magnetic effects, 

 is propagated. 



3. Extension of the universe in time, made necessary by observa- 

 tions in physics as to the rate of cooling of the earth, combined with 

 observations as to the physical condition and evolution of the stars; in 

 geology as to the time required for the formation of the strata of the 



