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  • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and STS Studies in Mainland China
  • Mei-Fang Zhang

In 1962, famous American historian and philosopher of science Thomas S. Kuhn published a book titled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. This work led to a surge of “Kuhn’s study fervor” in China, very much the same way it did in the West.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Structure had already become a controversial and influential topic in Western studies. By contrast, in mainland China it was just beginning to receive attention, due to the special political and academic circumstances of the time. Nevertheless, Chinese scholars were quick to take note of this work’s significance in the fields of philosophy and history of science. This resulted in the Chinese-language publication of the translated works of many important chapters from Structure, in addition to a number of reviews of it by European scholars (Bohm [1964] 1965; Mikulinski and Markova [1975] 1978; Schaefer [1977] 1979).

The mainland Chinese academic community witnessed dramatic changes during the 1980s, resulting in the introduction into China of a considerable number of Western publications on the philosophy of science. Among these was the first translated Chinese edition of Structure in 1980, followed by the inclusion of selected chapters of this book in Journal of Dialectics of Nature, a leading STS academic publication. Moreover, these chapters were accompanied by editors’ comments on Kuhn’s view as well as recommendations for further studies. In 1981, the first Chinese translation of The Essential Tension (Kuhn 1977) was made available. In the meantime, a series of translated works of Soviet scholars’ book reviews of Structure also were included in Chinese journals (Ginsburg [1976] 1980; Porus [1977] 1981a, [1977] 1981b; Kedrov [1980] 1984), and they were coupled with a good number of Chinese authors’ book reviews of Kuhn’s work (Shen 1981; X. Li 1984; Yang 1984; G. Li 1984). The popularity of such studies culminated in a symposium on Kuhn’s philosophy of science, held toward the end of 1981 and organized by scholars from the fields of philosophy of science, history of science, and so-called science of science in mainland China. At the meeting, the concepts of “paradigm,” “scientific community,” and “mode of scientific change” and Kuhn’s scientific epistemology and methodology [End Page 555] were subjects of heated debates. Nearly all of the proposed ideas in Structure could be interpreted from divergent or opposing viewpoints that also seemed well supported. These discussions suggested that ambiguity in the ideas projected in the book had allowed multifaceted interpretations, and that this book was a pioneering one. They also exemplified mainland Chinese scholars’ response to Structure, which was disputed very much in the same way as it was in the West (Li and Huang 1982; Jin 1982). The publication of the Chinese versions of Structure and Essential Tension in combination with the symposium marked the real debut of Kuhn’s influence on Chinese mainland STS studies.

Kuhn’s ideas have been pursued extensively since the 1990s. The second Chinese translation of Structure was published in 2003. According to informal statistics, Kuhn’s scholarly works have been the primary topics of more than fifty doctoral and master’s theses and more than four hundred research papers to date. In addition, Kuhn’s works are quoted and interpreted in numerous collected works and relevant publications. Important theoretical issues such as scientific rationality, relativism, and the demarcation of science raised by Structure have continued to be topics of great interest in current research works. The popularity of Kuhn studies in mainland China explains the influences of this author’s thoughts and Structure on Chinese STS studies.

However, while research on Structure and Kuhn seems to have gained momentum in mainland Chinese STS studies, questions remain. Have the views projected in Structure been fully accepted? Is the research methodology Kuhn pioneered being adopted? An investigation of the background of the research scholars and their works will provide important clues.

In mainland China, STS scholars are crossed-trained in the fields of philosophy of science, history of science, and science of science. They may not necessarily have affiliations with the same research institutions, but they could be connected with...

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