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Michael John Paton

School of Economics

University of Sydney

michael.paton@sydney.edu.au

The Geography of Styles of Reasoning: East & West; North & South

(This article will be published in volume 65 no. 4 of Philosophy East and West (July,

2015) published by the University of Hawai’i Press)

1. Introduction

Hacking’s (1985) concept of ‘styles of reasoning’ has prompted research into a

multitude of markedly different areas. For example, Hawkins and Pea (1987, p. 292)

use the idea that science is critical interpretation rather than the deduction of

generalisations from observed facts to design software for the learning and teaching of

science. In stark contrast, in a discussion of the history and philosophy of the use of

case studies, Forrester (1996, p. 2) argues that “reasoning in cases” should be added to

the six styles of reasoning proposed by Hacking (1990) (postulation and deduction,

hypothetical construction of models by analogy, ordering of variety by comparison

and taxonomy, statistical analysis of regularities of populations, and historical

derivation of genetic development) because there is neither one science nor one

method of science as an “eternal benchmark”. Using similar reasoning but on a

completely different tack, Maienschein, (1991) delineates the epistemic differences in

German and American embryology pointing out that there were marked differences in

aims, investigative processes and the use of evidence. Radder (1997) uses Hacking’s

styles of reasoning as the basis of a discussion of what he sees as the inextricable

relationship between philosophy and history of science. More recently the ideational

threads coming from Hacking’s work have become even more nuanced and esoteric.

For instance, Chiang (2009) uses Hacking’s styles of reasoning as a platform to

discuss the Western cultural impost on the conception of homosexuality in China in

the twentieth century and the relationship between sexuality, translation and East

Asian studies.

This paper is also based on translation and Chinese studies. Rather than

considering sexuality, however, I attempt to add to the discourse stemming from

‘styles of reasoning’ by consideration of the history of science and geography in

China. My starting point for this discussion is Hacking’s (2002, p. 3) argument that

‘(w)e constitute ourselves at a place and a time’. The great majority of philosophers

and historians who have commented on Hacking’s work, including all of those

mentioned above, have certainly discussed the chronological aspects of the ways in

which we constitute ourselves but there has been very little discussion of any

locational aspects to this. Chiang (2009, p. 113), for example, sees China ‘as a

cultural laboratory in which competing conceptualizing technologies were realized in

the name of reproducing their very symbolic value of traditionality and modernity’. In

contrast, my understanding of China is as a geographical laboratory in relation to the

development of science in one of the most extensively fertile places on the earth. I do

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this through the lens of traditional Chinese science itself, specifically dili (principles

of the earth) and fengshui (wind and water).

This paper, firstly, discusses observation and correlative thinking in dili and

fengshui, focussing on the meaning and difficulty of the translation of the concept shi,

‘configurational force’, which embodied an astute early qualitative understanding of

gravity and its relationship to fertility. The paper then argues that the different ‘style

of reasoning’ displayed in the discipline of dili became blurred into Western scientific

styles of reasoning to become dilixue (geography). A journal article on the history of

the development of the concept of ‘mountain veins’ in traditional Chinese science by

a member of the Chinese Geological Survey, Weng Wenhao (1925), is indicative of

this melding of Eastern and Western styles of reasoning. I posit that even with the

strength of China’s early scientific foundations, the acceptance in China of Western

styles of scientific reasoning was markedly accelerated due to the environmental

history of China (Elvin, 2004).

The environmental history of China over 3000 years is then compared to that

of Australia over the past 200 years using the traditional dili construct to argue that

northern hemisphere peoples coming to the south have had to modify their truth

claims based on their styles of reasoning to perceive the ritualisations of knowledge

inherent in northern knowledge systems, based on the generally more fertile

geographies of the power bases of the north. I argue that accepted ‘universal’

theoretical stances such as the market approach advocated by Hayek (1980 & 1976)

has more of a geographic basis than is realised and that continuing to follow the

“logic of short term advantage” (Elvin, 2004) and the “ethics of chance” (Paton,

2009), which have become major catalysts to present day market based systems, could

have a very negative effect on the survival of the human species over the long term.

2. Wind and Water

Fengshui, the original term for the more generic dili, literally means ‘wind & water’.

It is early environmental geography and not interior decorating as has recently

become fashionable in women’s magazines and ‘New Age’ ruminations. As an early

geographical science based around modelling of ideal fertile landscapes, its

theoretical structures at both the micro (local) & macro (continental) level had been

developed by end of the Tang dynasty (circa 880s). However, there was a marked

deterioration of theory over time such that it became not much more than the

relationship of siting to good and bad luck wrapped in mysticism.

In relation to the local micro-theoretical model, the lBook of Burial Rooted in

Antiquity (Book of Burial) 古本葬書 (circa 300CE) offers the first existing definition

of fengshui and indicates its relationship to qi, an energetic pneuma, wind and water:

The Classic says, 'If qi rides the wind it is scattered; if it is bounded by water it

is held'. Ancient men gathered it, causing it not to be scattered and curtailed its

area of circulation. Hence this is referred to as fengshui. The method of

fengshui is, first of all, to obtain water and secondly to store (qi) from the wind.

The Book of Burial also outlines the structural motive force for the circulation of qi,

the concept shi or configurational force:

Qi circulates through the earth according to the configurational force of the

earth. It gathers where the configurational force stops. The qi follows the trunk

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of a hill and branches along its ridges. The Classic says that if the qi rides the

wind it is scattered, if it is bounded by water it is held.

Moreover, the direction of flow of qi and the relationship with its accumulation and

fertility are outlined in this text:

The Classic says that when qi circulates through landforms, entities are thereby

given life. The configurational forces of the earth are the basic veins. The

configurational forces of the mountains are the basic bones. They snake either

west to east or north to south, curling back on themselves as if crouching and

waiting, as if with something in their grasp. Qi desires to proceed but it is cut

off. It desires to halt and becomes deep. Where it approaches and accumulates,

stops and gathers, there will be a clashing of yang with a harmonising of yin, the

earth will be rich and the water deep, the grasses lush and the forests luxuriant.

This theoretical modelling of the ‘energy’ associated with fertility was developed

around the concept of shanmai 山脈, literally ‘mountain veins’, the present day

translation of which is ‘mountain range’. These are also known as dragon veins in

some texts as the metaphor for mountains in early Chinese geography is the dragon.

However, the traditional dili concept is similar to that of acupuncture where qi 氣

‘energy’ flows in lines or veins. The major difference with acupuncture is that here

the ‘energy’ flows along the top of the ridge line according to the

configurational/geodetic force1 shi 勢 or the force in relation to the landform. The

association of configurational force with the ridge line indicates a very early

qualitative observational understanding of gravity.

A consideration of the history of the character for configurational force shi 勢

gives some indication of its meaning in relation to fertility and gravitational force.

According to the Ci yuan (The Origin of Words), the character was first used by

Mencius circa 500 BCE to describe comparative political or strategic power. For

instance, Graham (1989, p. 278) translates it as ‘power-base’ i.e. ‘a situation of

strength, or on occasion weakness, in relation to circumstances’, or in other words

political and social strength. It should be noted, however, that until the late Han

dynasty shi was written without the bottom part of the character, li 力, meaning

strength (Wells, 2001, p. 131).

The relationship with fertility of this earlier version of the character, 埶, can

be seen in its ideographic meaning as described by Karlgren (1952), a kneeling man

planting a seed.

The difficulty of translating shi is apparent in its broad usage in politics,

history, warfare and calligraphy (Ames, 1994, Jullien, 1995). In dili/fengshui theory

the idea of power relationship is transferred to the land. Here, it is force in relation to

landform (xing). Shi is translated as force because it is the motive aspect of the

movement of qi. This translation is reinforced by the use of the term, chong 沖, to

clash with or dash against, in conjunction with shi in many dili texts. If the

topographical form is too precipitous, the shi force causes the qi to dash a place,

making it unsuitable for the development of fertility. Moreover, it is apposite to note

that the present Chinese word for topography combines both shi and xing, and that the

present Chinese word for ‘force’ combines shi and li, shili 勢力. To add to the dynamism of the model, a supposedly earlier text than the Book

of Burial, the Qing Wu Archetypal Classic of Burial 青烏先生葬經 (circa 200CE

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although there is some doubt about its authenticity), links the process of accumulation

of fertility to the hydrological cycle even though the description is in relation to the

yin/yang theoretical construct:

When the qi of yin and yang is exhaled it ascends and becomes clouds,

descending as rain. When it circulates in the earth it is vital qi. When the vital

qi circulates in the earth it ferments and gives life to the myriad things. Man

receives his form from his parents. His basic frame obtains qi and the form he

is given accepts it and harbours it there. Life is the gathering of qi.

Thus, the local micro-theoretical model can be seen to be based on the hydrological

cycle where water rises to become clouds, with the clouds then dropping their load as

rain upon mountains to create topsoil and rivers, all couched in terms of the flow of a

pneuma, qi, in relation to a force based on the form or configuration of the

geomorphology.

The fact that the above quotes come from the Book and Classic of Burial

should be addressed at this point. These two texts are centred on the burial of one’s

ancestors in a fertile place so that their spirit is nourished. This is decidedly

unscientific but the research of the geographer Hong-key Yoon (2008) indicates that

fengshui originated as a system for siting viable living areas in the loess plateau of

northern China and that the basic theoretical structures were based on observation of

amenable places for the living rather than the dead. Yoon convincingly argues that it

was only later that the same theoretical structures were used for the nourishment of

the spirits of the dead. An example of evidence that Yoon uses is the traditional term

for a fengshui site, xue 穴. This literally means hole or cave, a term which fits the

housing situation on the Northern Chinese loess plateau because people there have

lived in holes dug into the ground for millennia. Thus, it can be seen that the original

use of fengshui was for the siting of human residences. In fact Yoon goes so far as to

say that “one cannot really comprehend East Asian cultures without a firm

understanding of their relationship to the land, and the siting of the structures on that

land” (Yoon, 2008, p. 8).

A later text, the Twenty-four Difficult Problems, from the late Song dynasty

shows the careful empiricism with which the theoretical models were used and

perhaps indicate their empirical basis:

In seeking out the dragon, observing the configurational force and isolating

a node one should ascend to the highest place in an area. At first investigate

the external situation. Next, observe and record what is opposite. Then

scrutinise the left and the right. Finally return to the place that has feeling

and examine the subtleties in detail. It is necessary that nothing is lost. In

general, in investigating a node, there is value in being detailed and

leisurely. One should wait for when the grass is dry and (the leaves on) the

trees have fallen. Ancient men first burnt the grass and then climbed the

mountain. This was an excellent method. In the rain one can investigate the

subtleties of the border. On a clear day one can observe the colour of the qi

and the pattern of the veins. In the snow one can examine the relative

thickness of where it accumulates, to ascertain where yang qi has gathered.

The saying of the ancients that three years is spent seeking the land and ten

years is spent isolating the node is prudent.

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Thus, a localised model of fertility to site suitable areas for habitation, and later for

burial, based on careful empirical observation was developed over millennia in China.

3. A Model of Continental Fertility

The localised model of fengshui was expanded to the macro continental level in the

late Tang dynasty by a scholar by the name of Yang Yunsong. Because rebels were

attacking the imperial capital in the late 880s, Yang Yunsong fled to the Kunlun

Mountains at the western extremity of the Himalayan orogeny. There he wrote the

Shaking Dragon Classic which outlined the relationship between the mountain veins

in China and the Himalayas. The opening lines of the Shaking Dragon Classic are as

follows:

The Kunlun Mountains are the bones of heaven and earth. Amidst everything

within heaven and earth, they are the chief entity just like the human spine.

They give birth to the loftiness of the four limbs of a dragon. The four limbs

separate into the four worlds. South, north, east and west are the four tributaries.

In the northwest the Kongtong Mountains have several tens of thousands of

entities. The eastern (dragon) enters the Three Han and is blocked by dark

obscurity. Only the southern dragon enters the Middle Kingdom. The embryo of

the clan and the conception of the ancestors are singular. The nine meanders of

the Yellow River are the large intestines. The meandering of the rivers is the

bladder. By splitting the branches and opening the veins there is departure in all

directions. Qi and blood join and meet where the water stops.

A renowned Chinese geologist of the early twentieth century, Weng Wenhao, quoted

these lines in a 1925 paper on the history of the development of the theory of

mountain veins in Chinese culture. Weng Wenhao, a member of the Chinese

Geological Survey,2 saw the Kunlun Mountains as a metaphor for the Himalayas and

stated that the observation of dragon veins by fengshui experts came from the

observation of nature and so that the system could be seen to be quite empirically

intelligent. However, he argued that this theoretical model tended not to base

mountain veins on the observed geology but on the line which was taken by the

watercourses, thus creating an unavoidable false analogy. Nevertheless, Weng

Wenhao was sufficiently impressed with the model to coin the term 'orography' to

describe this Chinese understanding of mountains. In fact, he argued that European

geologists only understood mountains from their local perspective and he queried why

Chinese should follow the European concepts slavishly. As he stated in this context in

the conclusion of his paper, “why should we cut our feet to make the shoes fit?”

Below is one of many geological maps in Weng Wenhao’s paper here showing

the Tang dynasty understanding of dragon or mountain veins:

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For all of Weng Wenhao’s criticism of the theoretical model of fengshui, it is still a

viable if imperfect model for fertility. If we consider the concept that fertile ‘energy’

flows west to east and north to south from mountains, on the macro-level west to east

from the Himalayas, the largest mountain range on Earth, lies China, which is so

fertile that it presently supports a population of over 1.4 billion people. Similarly, to

the south of the Himalayas lies India, which is similarly very fertile, enabling it to

support a present population of over 1 billion people.

1. Ritualisation of Knowledge

As has been shown above, early fengshui developed into a useful theoretical model of

fertility based on observation. However, from the Song dynasty onwards the later

theoretical constructs, based on the fengshui compass or luopan, had little to do with

empirical reality. Whereas the cosmology in the Book of Burial included the concepts

qi, yin/yang (the original conception of yin and yang were in relation to the shady and

sunny sides of a mountain), the form and the configurational force of the land, feeling

and careful observation, the compass brought all of Chinese cosmology including the

Five Phases, the trigrams of the Yi Jing, the celestial stems and the terrestrial

branches. The theory became more important than observation in that observation

needed to fit theory and not vice versa.

The author of the Twenty four Difficult Problems, quoted previously with his

call for careful observation, decries the proponents of the use of the compass who he

says conduct the ‘art of swindlers’ in their promise of good fortune. As he writes in

Problem 4:

The whole of this work discusses the form, force, feeling and nature of water. It

is never ignorant of the important principles as are the practitioners of the

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theories of direction who absurdly match longevity, the receiving of favours,

becoming an official and imperial prosperity with good and evil spirits and good

and ill fortune, consequently causing the lucky not to be buried and those buried

not to have good fortune. In deluding the world and misleading the people,

nothing is worse than this.

A later fengshui text, published in the late Ming dynasty circa 1600 CE, the Water

Dragon Classic, epitomises this movement away from observational knowledge. As

its title indicates, this text considers water courses rather than mountains as the source

of vital ‘energy’. It is an extensive text of five chapters with 102 pages of diagrams of

water courses with commentaries describing the flow of qi and the auspice of the

patterns. Two examples are given below:

Branching Water Intersecting the Water Pattern

Seated below a branch of water is inserted either from the north east or north

west. It meanders away to the south. One path goes to the left and another to the

right. Severing the border to the left and right the dragon and tiger interlock and

they embrace what is seated below forming the configurational force of the

intersection and embrace of the dragon and tiger. At the end there is the

formation of 'the palm of the immortal', which looks up to connect and protect

(the node). If it greets the approaching veins to establish the node and decide the

direction, then it is a node which turns to receive. If it yields to the water to

establish a node and decide the direction, then it is a node which yields to the

branch. If there is the sand of the dragon and the tiger embracing at the front,

the beauty necessarily has a rapid effect. …….The outer walls of the city being

complete and solid and the geodetic force of the situation being completely

dense represents 100 sons and 1,000 grandsons, and the vermilion and the

purple for the whole family. If in the north east or north west one path of water

separates into pools and then departs, the power is diminished.

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Land of Wanton Desire Pattern

The form is like a lifted skirt and a duck's head. The daughters and wives

will climb the wooden tower (become prostitutes).

That these are merely theoretical constructs not based on empirical data is indicated

by the following comment in the preface in a later (1742) edition of the Water Dragon

Classic:

.....I have inspected all of the land in Wu and Chu. With the three rivers and five

lakes the immersions are manifold. In seeking what agrees with these patterns, I

have not met one in a hundred. This just means that one (should) thoroughly

understand these theories in order to learn their meaning and that is all.

Thus, it can be seen that what were originally theoretical models based on observation

became merely theoretical constructs for their own sake. The theory became more

important than the reality and knowledge became ritualised. Such a rationale was not

new, however, in the history of Chinese science. In Chinese cosmology, the

traditional understanding of a year was as consisting of 360 days, which fitted

perfectly with the theoretical conception of 60 year cycles, but unfortunately did not

fit with reality. It is not surprising that the Jesuits were able to inveigle themselves

into the Ming dynasty court with their superior calendar, based on observation.

Such ritualisations of knowledge are not confined to China, however. Before

the peoples of the northern hemisphere moved south, their knowledge systems would

have stated, for instance, that all swans are white and that New Year comes after the

winter solstice to celebrate the waxing again of life no matter whether using a lunar or

solar calendar. Strangely, even now when those in the southern hemisphere celebrate

New Year, they are celebrating the waning of life. This ritualisation of knowledge

away from reality harkens one to Davidson’s ‘dogma of scheme & reality’ (Hacking,

2002, p. 175).

4. Environmental History of China and Australia – logic of short term advantage

Understanding the ritualisation of knowledge becomes imperative if we consider

environmental history, and the traditional Chinese dili/fengshui construct is a useful

tool for such considerations. As argued above, because China lies east of the

Himalayan orogeny, it has abundant top soil and water, and therefore fertility, which

is traditionally called vital ‘energy’ or shengqi 生氣. Such fertility enabled humanity

and civilisation to flourish; China has the longest continuous written culture after all.

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Moreover, this nurtured a strong scientific understanding of the world. Francis Bacon

once stated that the basis of modern civilisation was gun powder, paper money,

printing and the compass not realising that all of these had been invented in China and

used for some 500 years before his statement (Hobson, 2004). Nevertheless, even

with such fertility and science, the environmental problems in China became marked

during the late imperial period (circa 1600) due to the lack of an environmental ‘sink’

with the negation of the wild, particularly with the destruction of the forests in

northern China (Elvin, 2004). This created an unprecedented increase in the scope and

frequency of famine so much so that the central government’s famine relief program

was suspended for almost 20 years in the mid-eighteenth century as famine was so

widespread (Dunstan, 2006). Elvin (2004) argues convincingly that the cause of this

environmental destruction was the ‘logic of short term advantage’ epitomised by war.

He also sees this as a 3000 year war on the environment, which resulted in mass

migration in China and emigration from China over the past 300 years. Elvin also

states that the use of the logic of short term advantage is not specific to Chinese

culture but to humanity in general; the manifestation of such widespread

environmental destruction was due to the strength of Chinese science and civilisation.

The environmental history of Australia makes a useful counterpoint to that of

China. The fengshui/dili theoretical model explains why more than 80% of the

population of Australia presently live between the only substantial mountain range,

the Great Dividing Range, which runs the length of the eastern side of Australia, as

this is by and large the most fertile area. The theoretical model shows that Australia

lacks substantial mountain ‘veins’ and so there is a lack of ‘vital energy’, which

results in a lack of topsoil and water. The effect of humanity over the 40,000 – 60,000

years we have been on this continent has seen the extinction of megafauna and, some

argue, a change in the relationship of fire to vegetation (Flannery, 2002). However,

over time the indigenous people of Australia saw the need to live with, rather than

conquer the land. The comparatively recent northern hemisphere people’s settlement

of Australia, however, has seen a 200 year ‘war’ on a very delicate and very different

environment, which has resulted in widespread salinisation, loss of top soil, and the

introduction of exotic species such as rabbits, prickly pear, thistle and cane toads,

which have had a devastating effect on the land.

This negative impact on continental Australia has been very much related to a

northern hemisphere conception of science. The catalyst behind the first European

settlement in Australia was the visit of Captain Cook to the east coast in 1770. To him

the area around Sydney was fertile. In fact, he wrote that the Wollongong escarpment

some one hundred kilometres to the south of the first settlement at Sydney resembled

‘a gentleman’s parkland’ (Flannery, 2002). To their chagrin, the first European

settlers found this to be somewhat optimistic when all the food crops planted in their

first year in what could be considered to be a comparatively fertile area in Australia,

now the Sydney Botanical Gardens, died. The markedly different ecology in

Australia, which still fools the unwary, is exemplified by the fact that by 1979

eucalypts had been exported to over 180 countries from Australia, the majority of

which were planted in areas where trees had never previously grown (Food and

Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, 1979).

5. Ethics of chance

The history of fengshui in China is an example of a useful early scientific knowledge

system ritualised over time to the systematic development of good fortune rather than

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its original conception of siting based on the observation of fertility. Possible reasons

for this decline were the looming environmental disasters of the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries and the powerlessness of humanity when it strives against rather

than attempting to interact with its natural surroundings, exemplified by the continual

problems and resulting large scale mortality associated with the engineering of the

Grand Canal (Elvin, 2004).

These developments in traditional Chinese society show parallels with present

day globalised societies, particularly with their focus on the market for the basis of

societal decisions. The philosophical champion of this market approach was Hayek,

who argued that much societal power should be given over to the market. However,

there is no empirical evidence for such transference of power (Walker, 2000).

Hayek’s pure market, where individual investment decisions become an amorphous

global democratic whole, does not exist in reality. Powerful corporate and political

institutions sway the market to their advantage so that individuals are disenfranchised

economically even if they possess knowledge. Moreover, this lack of power of the

individual in the present day market-oriented economic system has an unexpected

effect; the ethos becomes that of chance. Individuals ‘play’ the stock market around

its short term adjustments to gain economic power through the acquisition of money

and this is especially so in speculative markets. These ‘players’ become a power

group themselves, thus skewing the market even further from reality. Therefore, short

term gain becomes the focus of the market and any long term necessities such as

environmental protection become lost in an ethic of chance. It is salutary in this

parallel with the history of science in China that paper money was developed and in

use in China from circa 910 CE as compared to Europe where it was first used in

Sweden 1661 America 1690 and England 1797. This perhaps indicates a nascent

capitalism in China long before modern Europe, and the logic of short term advantage

and ethics of chance in the monetary system in China besides the strength of science

and administrative structures there may have compounded its environmental decline.

6. Geographic Basis of Knowledge – ‘southern’ culture

The founding and development of the Royal Society in London in the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries had a marked effect on the development of science

internationally and on the framing of English as the scientific lingua franca. The

geographic basis of this development, however, is seldom considered. Diamond

(1997) showed that science developed specifically in Eurasia due to shared latitude

and land mass. A similar argument can be used to understand England’s rise to

prominence. Britain is a large island arc of Europe and was sufficiently close for

transference of Eurasian knowledge. Moreover, England in particular is sufficiently

fertile to maintain a large population for the development of civilisation. Most

importantly, however, because of its status as an island, Britain had to have a

maritime presence for trade and knowledge exchange and it was this maritime ability

that enabled the English to add to their knowledge by travelling to the corners of the

earth. England was the right place at the right time.

The power of scientific knowledge in England and Europe, which was

gradually developing as a system based on Hacking’s styles of reasoning, saw a

concentration on European experience of science and, thus a ritualisation of

knowledge around the European experience. This can be seen in what Schaffer et al.

(2009, p. xv) call the ‘distortions of a bipolar vision’, which establishes a bifurcation

between ‘western science’ and’ non-western knowledge’.

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A simple example of such bipolar vision can be found in the history of

swimming. The first book written in a European language on swimming, Colymbetes,

was written by a Swiss Italian by the name of Wynman and published in 1531. In this

text, Wynman called breaststroke the ‘scientific’ method of swimming. This stroke

held sway in Europe until the 1880s when a Solomon Islander came to Sydney in

Australia and taught the locals a stroke which more readily enabled them to swim in

surf. This stroke became known as the Australian crawl, now known as freestyle

(Colwin, 2002; Osmond and Phillips, 2004).

In relation to the logic of short term advantage and the ethics of chance as

mentioned previously, the indigenous Australian people’s experience is also of note.

When northern hemisphere peoples settled in Australia in the late eighteenth century,

it is estimated that there were between 350 and 750 languages spoken (Walsh, 1991).

However, these groups seem to an extent to have “transcended war” through “overlap

and concurrence of jurisdiction – of reciprocal foraging ties through intermarriage, of

reciprocal trade ties through ‘totemic’ identity” (Turner, 1987, p. 14). The description

below of the role of ‘go-between’ or professional diplomat used by many aboriginal

groups is indicative of this attempt to ritualise war.

Messengers are attached to every tribe, and are selected for their intelligence

and their ability as linguists. They are employed to convey information from

one tribe to another, such as the time and place of great meetings, korroboraes,

marriages, and burials, and also of proposed battles; for if one tribe intends to

attack another, due notice is always honourably given. Ambuscades are

proceedings adopted by civilised warriors. As the office of messenger is of great

importance, the persons filling it are considered sacred while on duty; very

much as an ambassador, herald, or bearer of a flag of truce is treated among

civilised nations (Dawson, 1981, p. 74).

I posit that this developed in Australian aboriginal culture because of the sparseness

and lack of vital energy of the land; all parties would lose from war, even the victors.

Moreover, if war is the epitome of the logic of short term advantage, which had such a

devastating long term effect on the environment in China, then such indigenous

cultures could be argued to be more advanced in relation to the survival of the species

than the more scientifically literate cultures coming from the north. This is

particularly poignant because European philosophers of science of the time of

Australian settlement such as David Hume believed in the superiority of Europeans

over other races (Morton, 2002).

The two examples given above are indicative of ‘southern’ culture. The

geographies of the southern hemisphere have created scientific knowledge that has

added to our global understanding of the world. Another example, more specifically

focussed on the general perception of science, is found in meteorology. The

Eurocentric concepts of summer, spring, autumn and winter do not necessarily fit the

southern hemisphere. Traditional Australian aboriginal conceptions of the season

were very much tied to their subsistence survival in their particular geography. Thus,

the fluctuations of rain framed aboriginal meteorological understanding in the deserts

of central Australia whereas the changes in direction and force of wind formed the

basis of that in Arnhem Land in north-western Australia (Webb, 1997). Such

traditional knowledge was of interest to the first group of Europeans to settle in

Australia in 1788. William Dawes, who in that year established and ran the first

observatory with an array of astronomical and meteorological instruments, made a

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systematic attempt to understand the local aboriginal language to help him understand

his strange new surroundings (Turnbull, 2009, pp. 402-412). These first gropings for a

southern understanding through the powerful scientific lens developed in the northern

hemisphere enabled the discarding of the Eurocentric meteorological ritualisations

and led the way to a global understanding of climate with the discovery of such

processes as the Southern Oscillation Index with people of the south but with northern

heritage playing a major role (Webb, 1997). In fact, these modern indigenous people

of the southern hemisphere have ‘punched above their weight’ in scientific

endeavours over the past hundred years with Australians being awarded nine and

South Africans four Nobel prizes for science and medicine, numbers that belie the

size of their populations even when the advantage of having the scientific lingua

franca of English as their language is taken into account.

7. Universality of Styles of Reasoning

The styles of reasoning used by these modern southerners were those outlined by

Hacking. However, I argue that these styles are not confined to ‘western’ science but

have been the basis of human survival in all cultures. For example, in response to

Crombie’s argument that scientific thinking involved postulational, experimental,

modeling, taxonomic, historical derivation, and probabilistic thought, Elvin (2002)

showed that traditional Chinese science displayed all of these various forms of

scientific thinking except probabilistic thought, with probabilistic thinking being

implied if not overtly discussed (Elvin, 2002). Traditional dili/fengshui is an example

of a system based on hypothetical construction of models by analogy and the ordering

of variety by comparison and taxonomy that can still be used as a rough

approximation of fertility. Even oral cultures needed scientific styles of reasoning.

The aboriginal people of Australia would not have been able to survive in such a

harsh land without such reasoning, the Polynesians would not have been able to settle

islands in the vast expanse of the Pacific without it nor would the New Guinea

Highlanders have been able to develop the most advanced pre-modern system of

agriculture without it (Flannery, 2002).

To consider that scientific reasoning is only the preserve of ‘western science’

is misguided and can lead to the ritualisation of knowledge, where power and stability

become more important than understanding. I have coined the term, cultural

chauvinism, the tendency for powerful cultures to negate or usurp the knowledge

systems of less powerful cultures and claim them as their own, to describe this

undermining of the possibilities of truth (Paton, 2004). This involves not only cultural

subversion and sublimation but also patronisation, denigration and disparagement of

the subverted knowledge system. It is exemplified by the condescension shown up

until recently by northern hemisphere peoples toward the knowledge embedded in

traditional indigenous Australian culture. I argue that if we allow prejudice in our

historical derivation, we diminish our rationality. The idea that knowledge transcends

space is reinforced by the concept in physics that the earth and in fact the universe are

everywhere affected by the same forces, a ‘spatial monism’, (Wertheim, 2010 p. 76 -

77) but to equate this with one geographical framework, the West, is misinformed at

best.

On a final note, one flaw in Hacking’s thesis on styles of reasoning would

seem to be that human feeling and the sense of aesthetics are not incorporated.

Traditional Chinese fengshui attempted to capture the nexus between rationality and

emotion by bringing the concept of feeling into rational structures in that the most

13

suitable site was one that had the most vital ‘energy’ as garnered from careful

observation and one that also had ‘feeling’. This is reflected in modern science; many

modern physicists such as Durac, Einstein and Weinberg have spoken of the beauty of

mathematical equations indicating their truth (Goldstein, 2010, p. 114). This

relationship between science and emotion has been supported by findings from

cognitive science that emotions are crucial for reason. For example, Damasio (1994)

showed that emotional-somatic reactions perform a crucial biasing / filtering function

in rational decision making. In fact, there is a strong suggestion that emotions play a

foundational role in ethical decision-making and practical reasoning (Haidt, 2001;

Slingerland, 2008).

8. Conclusion

Like Ian Hacking I am a dialectic realist in that I see science as a process of

understanding the interactions between what there is and our conceptions of it.

Moreover, my experience of teaching academic English to students of other language

backgrounds for over two decades has made me a dynamic nominalist with my

interest in the interaction between things we name and our practices of naming

(Hacking, 2002, p. 2), particularly as they relate to geography and culture. My

translation of classical Chinese dili texts has similarly brought me to the view that

‘anachronistic readings of canonical old texts can be a fundamental value in its own

right’ (Hacking 2002, p. 28) in that this gives us an understanding of the empirical

basis of fengshui prior to the ritualisation of its knowledge system.

I have attempted here to add to Hacking’s legacy by arguing the necessity of

understanding the geographical basis of knowledge systems to enable an

understanding of the ritualisations of knowledge within styles of reasoning. Because

we survive as a species through reasoning, humanity should celebrate the meeting of

history and geography that enabled the formation of the Royal Society, the catalyst for

scientific rigour in our styles of reasoning, but this is neither the only culture nor the

only place from whence our sciences have come. To concentrate only on the history

and philosophy of science in Europe in trying to understand the development of

reasoning is akin to basing societal structures on the logic of short term advantage and

ethics of chance with their negative consequences for humanity over the long term.

9. References

Classical Chinese Texts

Burial Classic of Qing Wu Esquire, Qing Wu xiansheng zang jing, Wu Qinze

(annotator), Jin dai bi shu Vol. 5 no. 42 of the Ji gu ge, (Shanghai: the library

of Mao Jin of the Ming dynasty, Shanghai bogu zhai yingyin, 1923) and Cong

shu ji xuan 0175, (Taibei: Xin wen feng chuban gongsi, 1988).

Book of Burial Rooted in Antiquity, Gu ben zang jing nei pian, Jin dai bi shu Vol. 5

no. 42 of the Ji gu ge, (Shanghai: the library of Mao Jin of the Ming dynasty,

Shanghai bogu zhai yingyin, 1923) and Xue jin tao yuan of the Qing dynasty

Vol. 5.

14

Secretly Passed down Water Dragon Classic, Mi chuan shuilong jing, Jiang Pingjie

(ed.), Cong shu ji xuan 0178, (Taibei: Xin wen feng chuban gongsi, 1988).

Twenty Four Difficult Problems, Nan jie ershisi pian, Author anonymous, Jin dai bi

shu Vol. 6 no. 53 of the Ji gu ge, (Shanghai: the library of Mao Jin of the Ming

dynasty, Shanghai bogu zhai yingyin, 1923) and Cong shu ji xuan 0178,

(Taibei: Xin wen feng chuban gongsi, 1988).

Other Texts

Ames, R. (1994) The Art of Rulership: a Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought (Albany:

State University of New York Press).

Chiang, H.H., (2009) ‘Rethinking ‘style’ for historians and philosophers of science:

converging lessons from sexuality, translation, and East Asian studies’ Studies in

History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences vol. 40, pp. 109–118

Ci yuan (Origin of Words), (Beijing: Zhonghua shu ju xianggang fen ju, 1998, p. 382).

Colwin, C. (2002) Breakthrough Swimming (Champaign: Human Kinetics).

Crombie, A. (1994). Scientific Thinking in the European Tradition: The History of Argument

and Explanation Especially in the Mathematical and Biological Sciences, Duckworth:

London, 3 volumes

Dawson, J. (1981) Australian Aborigines: the languages and customs of several tribes of

Aborigines in the Western district of Victoria, Australia (Canberra: Australian

Institute of Aboriginal Studies (1st edition 1881))

Diamond, J. (1997) Guns, Germs and Steel: a short history of everybody for the past 13,000

years (London: Vintage).

Damasio, A.R. (1994) Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain (New York:

0. P. Putnam's Sons)

Dunstan, H.(2006) “A Twice-Told Tale: Famine, Responsibility and Migration in Eighteenth-

century China”, University of Sydney Chinese Studies Seminar Series, 16 March 2006.

Published in Chinese as “Qian Long shisan nian zai jiantao” (Thirteen Years of Self

criticism in the Era of Qian Long) Qing shi yanjiu (Studies in Qing History), 2, pp. 1-

11.

Elvin, M.: (2004) The Retreat of the Elephants; an Environmental History of China,

(London: Yale University Press).

Elvin, M. (2002) Some Reflections on the Use of ‘Styles of Thinking’ to Disaggregate and

Sharpen Comparisons between China and Europe from Song to mid-Qing Times (960

– 1850 CE), paper given to the Biennial Conference of the International Society for

Intellectual History, ‘Early Modernity’: University of Sydney.

Flannery, T. (2002) The Future Eaters, (New Holland publishers, Victoria, Australia)

Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, Forestry Department, Eucalypts

for Planting, (FAO: Rome, 1979.)

Forrester, J. (1996) ‘If p, then what? Thinking in Cases’ History of the Human Sciences vol.

9, no. 3, pp. 1-25.

Goldstein, R.N. (2010) ‘What’s in a Name? Rivalries and the Birth of Modern Science’ in

Byson, B. (ed.) (2010) Seeing Further: the Story of Science and the Royal Society

(London: HarperPress).

Graham, A.C., (1989) Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China

(Chicago and LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court).

Hacking, I. (2002) Historical Ontology (Cambridge, Mass.; London : Harvard University

Press).

15

Haidt, J. (2001) ‘The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to

moral judgment’ Psychological Review, vol. 108, pp. 813–834)

Hawkins, J and R D. Pea (1987) ‘Tools for Bridging the Cultures of Everyday and Scientific

Thinking’ Journal of Research in Science Teaching vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 291-307.

Hayek, F. (1980) ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society’ in Individualism and Economic Order

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,).

Hayek, F. (1976) Law, Legislation and Liberty (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul)

Hobson, J. (2004) The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press).

Huang Jiqing, Weng Wenhao xuanji (The Collected Writings of Weng Wenhao), (Beijing: Ye

jin gongye chubanshe, 1989).

Jullien, Francois, The Propensity of Things: Toward a History of Efficacy in China, (New

York: Zone Books, 1995).

Karlgran, B., ‘Gramomata Serica Recensa’, Bulletin of the Museum of far Eastern

Antiquities, 29, Stockholm, 1952.

Maienschein, J. (1991) ‘Epistemic Styles in German and American Embryology’ Science in

Context vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 407-427.

Morton, E. (2002) ‘Race and Racism in the Works of David Hume’ African Philosophy vol. 1

no. 1 pp. 1-27.

Osmond, G. and M. G. Phillips, (2004) “The Bloke with a Stroke,” Journal of Pacific

History 39, no. 3 pp. 309–24.

Paton, M.J. (2009) ‘Environmental History of China and the Sustainable Management of

Governments, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Sustainable

Management of Public and Not For Profit Organisations SMOG 2009, University of

Bologna, Forli, Italy, 3rd July.

Paton M.J. (2004) 'Dragon Veins, Cultural Chauvinism, and the Energy of the Land,

Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on the History of Science in

China, Harbin, China.

Radder, H., (1997) ‘Philosophy and History of Science: Beyond the Kuhnian Paradigm’

Studies in History & Philosophy of Science vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 633-655.

Schaffer, S., L. Roberts, K. Raj, & J. Delbourgo (2009) The Brokered World: Go-Betweens

and Global Intelligence 1770-1820 (Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications,

U.S.A.)

Slingerland, E. (2008) What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Turnbull, D. (2009) ‘Boundary Crossings, Cultural Encounters and Knowledge Spaces in

Early Australia’ in Schaffer, S., L. Roberts, K. Raj, & J. Delbourgo (2009) The

Brokered World: Go-Betweens and Global Intelligence 1770-1820 (Sagamore Beach:

Science History Publications, U.S.A.)

Turner, D.H. (1987) ‘Transcending War: Reflections on Australian Aboriginal Culture’

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(ABC Books: Sydney). Walsh, M. (1991) ‘Overview of Indigenous Languages of Australia’ in Suzane Romaine

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publishing).

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16

Wertheim, M. ‘Lost in Space: the Spiritual Crisis of Newtonian Cosmology’ in Byson, B.

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10. Endnotes

1 I originally translated shi as ‘geodetic’ force. Geodetic is a surveying word meaning

‘according to the shape of the earth’. However, its use in translation bordered on

scientism, so the more generic ‘configurational’ was chosen. 2 See Yang Tsui-hua, ‘Development of Geology in Republican China’ in Lin Cheng-

Hung & Fu Daiwie (eds.) Philosophy and Conceptual History of Science in Taiwan,

(Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1993) Yang shows that Weng Wenhao was one of the leading

geologists in early 20th

century China at a time when unlike other areas of science

geology was both institutionally and scientifically sound and not considered to be

behind the West. Ting Wen-chiang theorised in the 1920s that this was because

historical sciences such as geology had some parallels with the concerns and methods

of traditional Chinese scholarship.