- Porkert , M. 1961 . Untersuchungen einiger philosophisch-wissenschaftlicher Grundbegriffe und Beziehungen im Chinesischen . Zeitschr. d. deutsche morgenländische Gesellschaft , 110 : 422 – 422 . ‘Wissenschaftliches Denken im alten China—das System der energetischen Beziehungen’, Antaios, 2 (1961), 532; ‘Farbenproblematik in China’, Antaios, 4 (1962), 154; and ‘Die energetische Terminologie in den chinesischen Medizinklassikern’, Sinologica, 8 (1965), 184. The first work saw light as a Paris Inaugural Dissertation in 1957.
- Porkert , M. Die theoretischen Grundlagen der chinesischen Medizin Das Entsprechungssystem (1973, Steiner, Wiesbaden: Münchener Ostasiatische Studien, no. 5). English trans.: The theoretical foundations of Chinese medicine; systems of correspondence (1974, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Science Series, no. 3). The latter appears to have been considerably expanded in certain sections. It is cited hereafter as ‘Foundations’.
- First in Jung C.G. Über Synchronizität Eranos Jahrbücher 1952 20 271 271 (English trans.: ‘On synchronicity’, Eranos Yearbooks, 3); then enlarged and published in C. G. Jung, ‘Synchronicity; an acausal connecting principle’ an essay in the collection The structure and dynamics of the psyche (Collected Works, vol. 8: 1960, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London) as well as in the book by Jung and Pauli (footnote 7).
- Jung , C.G. and Pauli , W. 1952 . The interpretation of nature and the psyche , Rascher, Zürich : Studien aus dem C. G. Jung Institut . originally published in German as Naturerklärung und Psyche no. 4). English trans. by R. F. C. Hull as: ‘Synchronicity; an acausal connecting principle’, by C. G. Jung, and ‘The influence of archetypal ideas on the scientific theories of Kepler’, by W. Pauli (1955, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London). The distinction had been described rather clearly by earlier scholars, especially Marcel Granet.
- Foundations , 43 – 43 . He impresses on the reader that ‘Western science is not more rational than Chinese science, merely more analytical’ (p. 46). This seems to us well said.
- See et al. Science and civilisation in China Cambridge University Press Cambridge 1954 2 288 288 These volumes are abbreviated hereafter as ‘SCC’.
- In a brief but luminous discussion ‘Les théories de Wang Tch'ong sur la causalité’ Mélanges offertes à Monsieur Paul Demiéville Paris 1974 2 179 179 Donald Leslie makes precisely this point. Citing texts from Chuang Tzu, Hsün Tzu and Tung Chung-Shu, as well as from Wang Chhung's Lun Hêng (Discourses Weighed in the Balance, 82 A.D.), he shows that natural philosophers in ancient China were conscious of three distinct forms of causation: (a) actions of like upon like mediated by physical contact, (b) actions of like upon unlike exerted at a distance without evident contact, and (c) coincidental or simultaneous effects arising from a pre-established harmony in the cosmos. Compare also D. Leslie, ‘The problem of action at a distance in early Chinese thought’, in Actes du VIIe Congrès International d'Histoire des Sciences (Jerusalem, 1953), p. 186.
- Hanson , N.R. 1955 . Causal chains . Mind , 64 : 289 – 289 .
- Historia Stirpium Indigenarum Helvetiae Vol. 2 , 130 – 130 .
- SCC , 2 289 – 289 . Examples are to be found in the amoebae of the slime-moulds, the nerve-nets in coelenterates, or the endocrine “orchestra” in mammals; where different component units take the lead at different times, for reasons not yet known to us.
- One is almost tempted to call it a field of force; compare SCC 2 291 291
- SCC , 2 261ff – 261ff . Compare Porkert's Foundations, 119.
- SCC , 2 279ff – 279ff .
- We admit to using the term ‘inductance’ SCC 2 281 281 when we were casting about for words to describe how one part of an organic pattern can act non-mechanically upon another one, but we were thinking of influences exerted only on and along one integrative level. The true analogy came a little later (page 287), that of dancers participating spontaneously in a cosmic rhythm and pattern, with instant ‘positional information’ (compare C. H. Waddington, ‘Biological development’, Encyclopaedia britannica, 1974 (15th ed.), p. 647), as well as their own intrinsic natures, to guide them. Thus their ‘causation’ comes from more fundamental integrative levels of the universe where the patterns lie, and ultimately the One. If we are going to keep any such term, ‘inductance’ would be preferable to ‘induction’.
- Compare SCC 2 281 282 304.
- For an exceptionally lucid summary of modern views on development and differentiation the encyclopaedia article of Waddington (footnote 18) is recommended. The state of knowledge about the mechanism of embryonic induction and determination just before the era of molecular biology is depicted in the book of Saxén and Toivonen Saxén L. Toivonen S. Primary embryonic induction Academic Press (Logos) and Elek London 1962 and J. Needham, Biochemistry and morphogenesis (1942, Cambridge, University Press; repr. 1950, repr. 1966 with historical survey as Foreword). During the past decade it has become clear that the inductor substances must be closely connected with the nucleotides and nucleo-proteins of the genetic coding apparatus, DNA and RNA, but little or no success has yet been achieved in their identification; see C. H. Waddington, ‘Concepts and theories of growth, development, differentiation and morphogenesis’, in Towards a theoretical biology (1970, Edinburgh, University Press), vol. 3, p. 177. We still lack any convincing theory of determination in terms of gene activity. One inductor substance at least has proved to be a protein, presumably a nucleo-protein (H. Tiedemann, ‘Extrinsic and intrinsic information transfer in early differentiation of amphibian embryos’, Symposia of the Society of Experimental Biology, 25 (1971), 223), and others probably are (D. E. S. Truman, The biochemistry of cytodifferentiation (1974, Blackwell, Oxford), 71–92, 96, 104).
- He even calls it directly inductive Foundations 14 14 among many other things.
- Also, obviously, responsive Foundations 14 14
- Foundations , 27 167ff – 167ff . See also Porkert's 1961 paper ‘Untersuchungen …’ (footnote 1), 536.
- Foundations , 27 185 – 185 . Both are also qualified as ‘individually specific’ (p. 27).
- Foundations , 22
- In Untersuchungen einiger philosophisch-wissenschaftlicher Grundbegriffe und Beziehungen im Chinesischen Zeitschr. d. deutsche morgenländische Gesellschaft 1961 110 536 536
- Foundations , 27
- Foundations , 176 178
- Foundations , 193 – 193 . ‘Untersuchungen …’ (footnote 1), 536.
- Foundations , 27 181 – 181 . ‘Untersuchungen …’, ibid.
- 1961 . Untersuchungen einiger philosophisch-wissenschaftlicher Grundbegriffe und Beziehungen im Chinesischen . Zeitschr. d. deutsche morgenländische Gesellschaft , 110 : 536 – 536 .
- Foundations , 193 – 193 .
- After all, something like the Aristotelian model of the semen (or form) organising the menstrual blood (or matter) into the developed embryo, could have been enough for the ancient thinkers of China. It was, no doubt, the prototype of the induction concept. Unfortunately we are still inadequately informed about their embryological speculations; but judging from later texts and tendencies they thought as least as much in terms of the Hippocratic-Epicurean theory of two collaborating semina, male and female (compare SCC in press 5 pt. 5 and J. Needham, A history of embryology (1934, Cambridge), 16, 24 ff., 42, 62, 108, 129, 193). This, though much more sensible genetically, was less illuminating embryologically; for even apart from primary and secondary inductors the DNA “induces” all. Of course, none of these ideas would have had any necessary connection with formulations involving different sorts of energy.
- Foundations , 167 – 167 .
- See SCC 2 22 23 41, 76, 369, 472.
- SCC , 2 480 – 480 . and we think that this is still justified as the nearest equivalent.
- Compare Cardwell D.S.L. From Watt to Clausius; the rise of thermodynamics in the early industrial age Cornell University Press Ithaca, N.Y. 1971
- See Elkana Y. The discovery of the conservation of energy Hutchinson London 1974 25 and G. Holton and S. G. Brush, Introduction to concepts and theories in physical science (2nd., revised and enlarged, edition: 1973, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.), 268.
- Theobald , D.W. 1966 . The concept of energy , 39 – 39 . London : Spon . This was the time of Huygens and Leipniz.
- See the accounts of its rise and fall by Brown S.C. The caloric theory of heat Amer. journ. Physics 1950 18 367 367 and by D. E. Roller, The early development of the concepts of temperature and heat; rise and decline of the caloric theory (1960, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass.: Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science, no. 3).
- Compare Kuhn's account Kuhn T.S. Energy conservation as an example of simultaneous discovery Critical problems in the history of science Clagett M. University of Wisconsin Press Madison, Wis. 1959 321 321 in with discussions by C. B. Boyer and E. Hiebert following); and H. T. Pledge, Science since 1500; a short history of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology (1939, HMSO, London; 2nd ed. 1966, with new prefatory note and added subject index), 141ff. The experiments were carried out by Sadi Carnot in 1832, Marc Séguin in 1839 and Karl Holtzmann in 1845.
- Michael Faraday, Justus von Liebig, C. F. Mohr and W. Grove Kuhn Energy conservation as an example of simultaneous discovery Critical problems in the history of science Clagett M. University of Wisconsin Press Madison, Wis. 1959 321 321 in
- J. R. Mayer, J. F. Joule, L. A. Colding and Hermann von Helmholtz. On this there are classical papers by Kuhn Energy conservation as an example of simultaneous discovery Critical problems in the history of science Clagett M. University of Wisconsin Press Madison, Wis. 1959 321 321 in and Y. Elkana, ‘The conservation of energy; a case of simultaneous discovery?’, Archeion (Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences), 1970, no. 90–91, 31; for a book by the latter, see footnote 40. The section in Holton and Brush (footnote 40), 245ff, is a good introduction.
- Porkert is not the only writer making proposals for the interpretation of ancient words in terms of frankly modern energy concepts. For example, Fournier Alain Aspect thermodynamique du “Livre de la voie et de la vertu” Tao Tê Ching) Critère (Ahuntsic College Review) 1974 161 161 in his interesting in suggests that Tao should be understood as energy, and Tê as order or negative entropy. Our hesitations remain.
- Foundations , 27 185 – 185 .
- The five Cycles and the six Chhi 55ff – 55ff . Foundations
- See, for example, the remarkable review of Richter C.P. Biological clocks in medicine and psychiatry; the shock-phase hypothesis Proc. National Acad. Sci. Washington 1960 46 1506 1506
- Porkert actually quotes these himself; Foundations 120 125, 131, 138, 141.
- SCC , 2 242 ff – 242 ff . esp. 244, 245ff., 253ff.
- Foundations , 26 43 ff – 43 ff . 45
- A classical description is that of de Robertis E.D.P. Nowinski W.W. Saez F.A. General cytology Saunders Philadelphia and London 1948 176ff 176ff
- A discussion of this problem has been given already in Needham J. Clerks and craftsmen in China and the West University Press Cambridge 1970 403 404 based largely on collaborative work with Wang Ling, Lu Gwei-Djen and Ho Ping-Yü (Collected lectures and addresses
- For example, the title of the famous 2nd-century A.D. classic of internal medicine, Shang Han Lunw comes out in Porkert as ‘Treatise on cold lesions’ Foundations 42 351 351 This is quite unacceptable; the contents dictates the title as ‘Treatise on febrile diseases’.
- See, for example Clerks and craftsmen in China and the West University Press Cambridge 1970 305ff 305ff
- See Karow O. Akupunktur und internationale Nomenklatur Deutsche Zeitschr. f. Akupunktur 1954 3 5–6 16 16 and (no. 7–8), 49
- Foundations , 52 – 52 .
- Or foramina inductoria Foundations 197 197 At many acu-points the entry of the needle cannot be felt, though characteristic local sensations follow later; and on the other hand, there is probably no point on the whole body-surface which lacks receptor nerve-endings at various depths capable of signalling into the central and autonomic nervous systems.
- Foundations , 3 107 ff – 107 ff . We shall discuss the tsang hsiang conception in vol. 6 of SCC.
- Foundations , 197ff – 197ff .
Annals of Science
Volume 32, 1975 - Issue 5