Tracking global knowledge production and communication
November 10, 2023 10:40 Source: "China Social Sciences", November 10, 2023, Issue 2770 Author: This Reporter Practice Zezhi Leisure

Today's facing many global challenges,The importance of reflecting on the history of global knowledge is of great significance。The focus of research on global knowledge history、Existing Challenge and Knowledge Center and other issues,This reporter interviewed Ren Bod (Ren Bod), a professor of digital humanities at the School of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands、Associate Professor Joseph Martin of Duoren University in the United Kingdom and Yves Gingras, a professor of history at the University of Montreal History。

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The relationship between globalization and the history of global knowledge is a question that global historians are actively discussing。Martin told this reporter,Knowledge has already had global characteristics a long time ago。For example,Ancient anthropologists found that the knowledge of stone manufacturing has spread globally at a amazing speed,And this is thousands of years earlier than the appearance of written words。Whether it is text records or material culture,The traces of all the knowledge systems we can see show that they have been incorporated into the global network。So,Global Knowledge History is a grand theme,Can't simply regard it as a globalization history,However, knowledge and its flow are important for understanding the history of globalization。

Ren Bode said,Knowledge Globalization is a phenomenon shared globally,In the 19th century or even earlier, it existed,Now it is a great benefit to the emergence of the Internet。Global Knowledge History is a relatively different period、How humans obtain knowledge in different cultural backgrounds。He told this reporter,Global knowledge history can clarify how global knowledge happens,Its main research issues include how to write a multi -central knowledge history that treats all regions and cultures equally; human knowledge has developed from enlightenment to now,What kind of way does the understanding of nature and culture have gone; whether the history of knowledge has a universal model and principles;。

Ren Bude thinks,Studying the history of global knowledge is very important。Many famous reasoning、bet365 live casino games Laws are mistakenly attributed to Western scholars,In fact, the original inventor of the source is often China、Indian or Arabic scholars,A few centuries earlier than the laws and papers later in the West,Of course there is the opposite situation。One of the tasks of historians is to explore and explain the history related to it。In addition,There are other important significance for the history of global knowledge。Proof of facts,On different occasions,Scholars have repeated labor。Ren Bade shows the application of the Cuban Babylon model in his research results.,and China、India、How the linguistics and literary thoughts of the Arab countries are accepted by European and American scholars in the 20th century。The spread of knowledge is long -term、Urcene,It is not easy to distinguish in global history,and historians need to reveal these effects,and publicize the human historical knowledge system to the public,so that the public can obtain and use these knowledge。

 Global Knowledge History Research is inseparable from cross -domain cooperation

Goldglas told reporters,Actually the concept of "history of global knowledge" has only appeared recently,It is the embodiment of globalization of goods and capital exchange。but,The academic world has always liked to create a new "buzzword",For example, the "comparatic history" in the 1960s was gradually replaced by the "Connected History" of the 21st century; since the end of the 20th century,"Global History" concept is increasingly adopted by people。From a sociological perspective,This is one of the distinction strategies adopted by the academic circles to distinguish between traditional methods。There are some important issues behind these new names,How is the knowledge flowing? What impact does this flow have on the meaning of knowledge?、How can language and culture promote or hinder the flow of knowledge? These are key issues,The important thing is not the difference between "comparison" and "connection" and "world" and "global",Because it is just the surface difference of text,We need to pay more attention to the historical facts itself。

Kim Glas thinks,Scholars should focus on the nature of the research object,If in the field of natural science,Electronic、The unity of the essence of the material and other substances makes the scholars' international cooperation bet365 live casino games easier。Comparison of comparison,The local characteristics of society and culture are more prominent,Therefore, cooperation is often limited to scholars in the same place,This makes the flow of relevant international cooperation and knowledge more difficult。

From Ren Bade's view,Global Knowledge History Research is facing many problems。The first question is acquisition,Not all cultures have written carriers,It may also be transmitted and retained by the mouth of the mouth。Even if there is a written carrier,Not all libraries or archives can be checked。Imagine the famous Tingbucks manuscript,Involved in astronomy、Mathematics、History、Logic、Theology、Linguistics and other disciplines,It is very important for the history of knowledge,There are hundreds of thousands of manuscripts existing,But only a few of them are available for researchers for inspection。The second question is how to compare the concepts that seem to have no common in different cultures。In this case,Scholars must be in language、History、Finding similarity and potential mode between art and scientific concepts。Maybe the hardest problem is,The research goal is to establish a multi -central world history,Treat all regions and culture equally。This means to get rid of the knowledge history centered on a certain area,Take each region or each culture as its own center,Then compare the knowledge products inside and between each center。Scholars must handle the language used by these centers。From this leading to the third question,That is to write a true history of global knowledge,Historians and linguists must cooperate,However, historians are often not used to large -scale cooperation,This involves cultural changes in the field of historical writing。But because no one can learn all the languages ​​in the world,Therefore, cooperation will be an indispensable element for writing global knowledge history。

Martin also expressed similar views,He said,Global knowledge history proposed many unique methodological challenges。Global knowledge history has the characteristics of multi -dimensional,Involved in many places、Culture、Language, etc.,It also needs professional and technical knowledge to understand the content of related knowledge,High requirements for the knowledge reserves of scholars。In some English countries,The system for allocating bet365 best casino games professional awards is not suitable for cooperation and publishing,Therefore, scholars in the field of history are unwilling to participate in teamwork,But to answer many questions raised by the history of global knowledge, you need to coordinate different professional knowledge。

 Breaking the language barrier

Like other global issues,Global Knowledge History also faces the issue of discourse right,But the scholars of the interviewees said,Although there is Western hegemony in this field,But the situation is getting better。From Ren Bade's view,Global knowledge history is mainly dominated by the West,In the "Global Northern" country,There is a strong prejudice for the history of Western knowledge。Many historians have only one vague concept about what happened elsewhere in the world,Part of the reason is that they do not understand languages ​​other than European languages。But now the situation is gradually changing,More and more historians have learned Chinese、Arabian、Japanese and other non -European languages,They are increasingly exploring the history of knowledge from other continents。For example,British historian Jack Goody (Renaissance: one or multiple? (Renaissances: The One or The Many?) Compared with the Renaissance in different cultures around the world。and Ren Bude himself also in the book "World of Patterns: A Global History of Knowledge", the Western Natural Sciences from the conventional core role in the book from the conventional core character,Introduce the knowledge production method of the entire human history and all regions around the world。

Ren Bude thinks,If you want to understand a region,Scholars must inspect the local archives、Information in the library。Some historians have started to do this,and I have continued to do it for more than a century。For example,At the end of the 19th century,Liang Qichao and other Chinese scholars have discovered a very rich logical idea of ​​Mojia,It is not as complicated than Aristotle Logic,After comparison, they discovered that these two traditional reasoning and debate rules of China and Greece are basically the same。1973,Archaeologists discovered the "Five Stars" about 8000 words "Five Stars" in the excavated book unearthed in the Han Tomb of the Ma Wangdui of Changsha,The mathematical methods that contain an astronomical table and the position bet365 live casino games of the planet position,Its accuracy is roughly the same as the astronomical model established by European scholars several centuries。Research on Knowledge History more than once in the form of cooperation between Chinese and Western scholars,For example,Joseph Needham to the History of Chinese Science and Technology、Research on cultural history made important contributions。But,Global Knowledge History Research is still in the budding stage,Scholars need to do more work,Only in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge development of various fields in the world。

Martin told reporters,In terms of system,,The academic world is very conservative,Therefore, important institutions in the fixed field often do not change,Scholars still tend to from the same journal、The same learning、The same meeting and the same university to evaluate the status quo of a certain discipline。In this sense,Scholars who have received Western training are evaluating the current academic situation,Often will still be from the same、Mainly inspired by Western institutions。He added to,In fact, even in the Western world,The communication between the English academic circles and the French or German academic circles is also less amazing。Compared with the gap between the East and the West,Martin believes that the difference between language in the academic world is much larger。For example,He often finds himself with China、Japan or South Korea's peers is more contact than contact with France,The reason is very simple,Because its French colleagues rarely work in English。

Despite this,As far as knowledge is concerned,The status of related fields has undergone tremendous changes in the past ten years。For example,Chinese history as a topic,Now in the Western Academy,Especially in terms of global knowledge history,Get strongly reflected。Those who have just received a doctorate in the United States are now hard to find a job in this professional field,Universities are more inclined to hire in Asia、Africa or Latin America history has expertise,instead of hiring people who have traditionally dominated North America and Western European history。

Martin said,Entering a mature community from the outside in the field of humanities and social sciences is more difficult than in the field of natural Bet365 app download sciences,Part of the reason is that the working language and cultural dimension in the field of humanities and social sciences are much more important and complex than the natural sciences。To overcome relevant obstacles,Need to establish a wide range of interpersonal relationships,The more contact with people in other regions,The more likely it is to find overlapping fields,Establishing a cooperative relationship。He said: "Understanding the behavior of knowledge in the world is important,To do this well,Need a global connected intellectual circle,We are far away。”

 Jump out of the concept of "hegemony"

Kim Glas put forward a different view,He thinks,The concept of global knowledge history is easy to make people forget that knowledge production in various fields depends to a large extent on material production。There is a close correlation between the number of papers in a country and its GDP。Review the history of scientific development,We can clearly see that the European Knowledge Center transferred from Greece (500 BC to 250 AD) to Arab countries (11-14 century),Then transfer to Europe (17-20th century),China has been living in an important position since the end of the 20th century。Under the condition of uneven economic development,There is a central and edge of the global knowledge production structure that is unavoidable。

He said,From the perspective of the writing of knowledge history,Scholars in each culture inevitably focus on the history or region of its belonging to,Because the writing of knowledge history requires a deep understanding of culture and language。For example,Historians in the 1950s and 1960s should pay attention to the history of the 17th century,They need to be proficient in Latin,With the decrease in ancient Greek and Latin teaching,Scientific historians in the United States are more and more concerned about modern history。Similarly,Historian or sociologist If you want to study China's knowledge spread,You must understand Chinese。So,The concept of "hegemony" is not conducive to understanding the flow of knowledge。Because of the knowledge about nature, it is often universal,Ru Law of Newton's sports is established anywhere on the earth。Sociological theory is generated to understand social behavior,Therefore, it can only be applicable to a specific society,In view of the cultural Bet365 app download diversity on the earth,These theories are unlikely to have general validity。Although the concepts of "cultural capital" can be applied to different society,But the theory of explaining social evolution may still be local,Because social science theory tends to the "medium theory" that American sociologist Robert King Merton is called,Just valid only in a specific space or time。The reason why North America has long dominated most scientific fields,Obviously related to the strong economic development brought by technological innovation,and technological innovation itself is related to the creation of many colleges with a high academic level。

Kim Glas thinks,Knowledge is always related to specific objects,Need a specific method,Generate specific concepts and theories,Abstract talk about "knowledge" is risky。In the past 50 years,The spread of knowledge is very different depending on the discipline and local research traditions,It is not "global" but "effective",This is the true nature of knowledge。

Editor in charge: Zhang Jing
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