Tradition and Modern Society

The intricate relationship between tradition and modern society is naturally a wide ranging and quite interesting problem, but so far, this important problem has not been fully discussed in academia, which is naturally a big defect in the academic realm; considering this situation, in this paper, we prepare to do some somewhat systematic discussions about many continuities and changes between tradition and modern society, which will probably help us to better understand the complex relationship between tradition and modern society.

(I ) The Basic Changes in Politics and Economy

As people’s general awareness, the transition from traditional society to modern roughly started at the Renaissance in the 15^th century, and these changes involve many basic aspects, and in them, many significant changes take place in the political and economic fields.

1 The change of focus in politics. As we know, in politics, people’s focus undergoes basic change between ancient Greece and modern society, namely, turning from “good” in ethics to “right” in politics, about this, Rawls says: “The ancients asked about the most rational way to true happiness, or the highest good, and they inquired about how virtuous conducts and the virtues as aspects of character-the virtues of courage and temperance, wisdom and justice, which are themselves good-are related to that highest good, whether as means, or as constituents, or both. Whereas the moderns asked primarily, or at least in the first instance, about what they saw as authoritative prescriptions of right reason, and the rights, duties, and obligations to which these prescriptions of reason gave rise. Only afterward did their attention turn to the goods these prescriptions permitted us to pursue and to cherish.”[1] Namely, in ancient Greece, people’s main concern was ethical norm and “good” in conduct, while in modern society, people’s main concern is “right” in daily behavior, and this fundamental change also brings many derivative effects.

As a good representative of this important change, Machiavelli (1469-1527) can reflect this notable transition, and he lived at the turn of the 15^th and 16^th century when tradition began to transit into modern society, and in some works (likeThe Prince), he begins to examine the political field from realistic and rational perspective, which frees politics from the entaglement of ethics in the Middle Ages, and also initially marks that modern society’s focus has turned from “good” to “right”. People like Hobbes who lives at the same period also represent this notable transition, and works like Leviathan also begin to examine many political issues from the rational and empirical perspective, and they all embody the new thought fashion in modern society. To conclude, the change of basic focus in politics is one of the basic differences between ancient and modern societies.

   2 The transition of democracy’s types. In the process of many-sided transitions from tradition to modern society, as one of the centralized reflections of politics, democracy’s basic form also takes place profound change. In general, though democracy already sprouted in ancient Greece, democracy then was somewhat primitive and crude, and as pointed out by famous political scientist Sartori in the classic The Theory of Democracy Revisited, the democracy in ancient society was one kind of direct democracy, while in modern society is indirect democracy, namely, democracy in modern society is much more complex and mature than ancient society. Another brilliant political scientist Dahl analyzes the long developing process of democracy in On Democracy, and he also elaborates many differences between modern and ancient democracy, like system components, basic spirit and social foundation. A simple fact is, due to the basic change of social structure, especially science and technology’s progress and the accompanying great development of market economy, modern society’s democracy interacts and mutually supports with the rule of law, science and business, etc, which together guarantess the society’s orderly functioning and continuous progress, while these basic institutions’ specific compositions and function are all much more mature than the relevant ancient institution. In brief, compared with ancient society, modern society’s democracy undergoes great transition and improvement.

3 The transition of freedom’s types and intension. With the enormous development of many aspects such as science, technology, business and etc, compared with traditional time, modern society’s social form undergoes basic changes, and correspondingly, the type of freedom in human society also has profound transition. About the differences of types of freedom in traditional and modern societies, famous thinker Constant once does classical expositions, and he thinks what ancient people had was mostly positive freedom, while for modern people, is mainly negative freedom, and the reason behind it is, in modern society, people mainly care about personal affairs such as business and personal interest and life, etc, while in ancient society, people mainly care about group affairs like politics and military affairs, etc. Meanwhile, like democracy, compared with ancient period, freedom’s intension in modern society also has quite large expansion, because modern society’s freedom involves many different aspects such as economic freedom, political freedom and free speech, and it also has close internal connections with many basic institutions like law, politics, market economy, etc, while the intension of ancient freedom is relatively simple, namely, modern society’s freedom is much broader and more complex than ancient times. To sum up, compared with ancient society, the main intension and emphasis of modern society’s freedom also has large expansion and shift.

We need to add that, though the basic differences between the intension and types of democracy and freedom in ancient and modern societies is a quite interesting and complex issue, since we have already somewhat detailedly elaborated these changes’ contents elsewhere, and thereby, we do not repeat these facts here.

4 Many changes in economy. Like politics, in economy, compared with tradition, modern society also takes place many essential changes. Here, we just want to discuss about ancient Greece’s situation, and famous classicist Glotz once divides ancient Greece’s social and economic condition into four periods: Homeric period, Archaistic period, Athens period and Hellenistic period, and about these four periods’ economic condition, Glotz does systematic and complex expositions. In these four different periods, Athens is the summit stage, and about Athens period’s social and economic condition, Glotz writes: “The circulation of currency becomes active, and the Athenian people do not save money, but use them to invest. Agriculture becomes commercialized and more intensive. The division of land facilitates land’s recentralization and speculation. Agricultural technology teaches vegetable farmers, fruit growers and flower farmers more scientific planting methods.” With the many-sided prosperity in economy, trade in Athens also has enormous development: “But in Athens, it is trade that shows great importance and universality. Through scientific and strict organization, it can undertake various forms of transaction. Business center (Emporia) provides a variety of cooperation for ship owner, transport agent and usurer, and mining and metalworking companies gather a large amount of capital, and banks also apply money to various investments.” But, despite Athens period’s economy show prosperous scene in many industries, Glotz also reminds us, there is still essential difference between Athens society’s economic condition and modern economy, and as he says: “There is no mechanics, and only slave.

The continued existence of family work, worker’s dispersion into small settlements, money used to investment is not much, and these all mean medium industry almost cannot move forward anymore.” “However, in Athens, the center of world trade, industry often shows an inferior face. The deficiency of machine leads to that handicraft workshops are difficult to develop into big factories, and labor force are unable to centralize, meanwhile, massive product production cannot erase the mark of family work. Because, machinery and slavery are irreconcilable, but slavery is regarded as very necessary. Slavery is an inherent notion in polis’ concept—in other words, it creates the essential difference between ancient and modern economy.”[2] Namely, Glotz thinks, slavery and the deficiency of machine caused by it these two basic elements are the fundamental differences between ancient Greek and modern economy.

To sum up, when examining the differences and similarities between ancient Greek and modern economy, we must think beyond some simple, mechanical concepts like agricultural economy and market economy, and need to make many concrete and detailed analyses like Glotz, and obviously, ancient Greek economy’s complex situation cannot be characterized by using simple words like “agricultural economy” and “traditional economy”. Comprehensively considering many-sided facts, we can probably think, basic things such as industry, financial institution, large enterprise and free laborer which extensively exist in modern economy are its essential difference with ancient economy.

 (II) Individual Life’s Change and Continuity

   Above we examine some basic changes when tradition transits to modern society in political and economic fields, while in individual life, modern society also has many new features; but, we also should not overlook that, many kinds of experience in ancient still have high enlightenment and practical value for modern individual, namely, many traditional things and many modern elements jointly shape our modern life.

   1 Cooking, Food. Compared with ancient people, modern people have some evident changes in diet, but also have many inherited places. Firstly, as for the sorts of food, ancient people also know most food modern people eat, like stewed pork with potatoes, carrot, tomato and egg soup, fried chicken, stewed fish, roast beef, etc, because there are also many kinds of food in ancient; for modern people, there are many kinds of food in the restaurant, while for ancient people, they will also go to some restaurants, and there are naturally also many types of food they eat there. Secondly, as for many cooking skills, compared with ancient people’s cooking skills, modern man’s cooking methods have some fixed places, meanwhile also have many changing and enriching places; because modern men have many modern convenient tools such as gas stove and electric cooker, and thus, our cooking is easier and more convenient than the ancients, but many cooking skills are the same as the ancients, like adding salt and oil, cutting meat, adding water, pancake, etc; when we cook in normal times, like frying ribs and stewing fish, we will also often mention many specific skills about these food which have passed down for many generations; meanwhile, the ancients also have many cooking tools, such as pot, knife and fork, etc, and they also all directly come down to modern society. Finally, as for the quality of eating and diet, the ancients’ normal food is certainly not as delicious as modern people, and they are usually reluctant to eat meat and eggs, and they can eat some delicious food like fish, chicken and pork only during holidays or receiving guests, while with productive force’ great improvement and life’s affluence, most modern people can eat much meat and many vegetables in normal life, and also can often go to the restaurant, namely, modern people’s life quality is higher than the ancients.

 If looking from the perspective of eating and diet, compared with the ancients, modern people’s change mainly embodies in cooking tools’ advancement (like electric stove, etc), while the kinds of most food do not change too much, namely, in our diet, there are both traditional side and modern side, and these two are often interlaced. For example, in ancient and modern kitchens, when people fry eggs, though the tools used when cooking are different, many concrete experience and feelings are still similar, and it means that, for cooking and food, even in modern society, our much traditional experience still has their rich values.

2 Dress, Clothing. Due to the improvement of clothing technology, modern people’s dress is naturally quite different from the ancients, and generally speaking, modern people’s clothes are more advanced and diverse than the ancients; for example, in the cold winter, modern people can wear down jacket (born in 1936, and then quickly becomes popular) and leather shoes to defend against the cold, while in spring and autumn, people’s clothes types are also more than the ancients. A broad changing tendency is, modern people’s clothing types are richer than the ancients; take the jeans as example, American Levi’s invented jeans in the mid-19^th century, and in the 1950s and 1960s, jeans were already very popular worldwide, while modern people also have many clothes similar to jeans. But, despite modern people have more kinds of dress, compared with the ancients, our many wearing skills and clothes-washing skills (using soaps, drying the washing, brushing shoes, etc) are still the same, namely, in basic aspects like dressing and washing clothes, we also have many inherited places. Except ordinary people’s clothing experience, the ancients also have many points we can learn from it in clothes making, because ancient people actually also have systematic and mature clothes making technology, and the ancient clothing practitioners also can design many different styles of clothes, and they also have very rich, meticulous and ingenious relevant experience in clothes’ color, styles and materials, and these all have extensive reference values for modern people.

Here, we can quote Mill’s one passage in the 19^th century: “A workman takes a stalk of the flax or hemp plant, splits it into separate fibres, twines together several of these fibres with his fingers, aided by a simple instrument called a spindle; having thus formed a thread, he lays many such threads side by side, and place other similar threads directly across them, so that each passes alternately over and under those which are at right angles to it; this part of the process being facilitated by an instrument called a shuttle. He has now produced a web of cloth, either linen or sackcloth, according to the material.”[3] What Mill’s this passage describes is the method to produce cloth, and from it, we can see, though almost 200 years have passed, compared with the society then, our cloth making experience today is still similar, which also fully proves traditional experience’s importance in clothing. In a word, like eating, modern people’s progress in dress also mainly stems from technology’s continuous improvement, but much traditional wearing and clothes making experience is still very applicable to modern people, because there are many details in wearing, washing and producing clothes, and they include much delicate experience, therefore, the ancients’ wisdom and living experience in these aspects is often indispensible for us. Summarizing these many-sided facts, we can see, in clothing field, tradition and modern are also interpenetrated and interactive.

   3 Transportation, Travel. In transport, compared with the ancients, modern people’s advantage is somewhat more obvious, because ancient people could not have many modern transportation tools such as car, train, airplane and steamship. For ancient people, they will feel quite difficult to go to distant places, and can just rely on some backward ways like carriage, and thereby, it is inconvenient to communicate even between two places which are just hundreds of miles apart, and will bring certain psychological pressure; while for modern people, it is just a minor problem which can be somewhat easily solved. Certainly, despite there are evident differences in transportation tools, when the ancients and modern people travel, they will still have similar thoughtful, emotional and psychological conditions: when travelling, what the ancients and modern people think are still many issues about family and career, and people will also try to accumulate living experience in various aspects, namely, in the ancient carrier and modern train, people’s thinking and feelings when travelling are actually similar; while at seeing-off and reunion, though the places are different—ancient people are in tavern, while modern people are at railway station and bus station, people will still have similar mental condition. Indeed, for modern people’s travel, many new things have emerged such as subway and bus, and they will all bring certain change for people’s mindset and behavior pattern, and thus, modern people need to accumulate some new relevant experience, but many kinds of traditional experience will still bring us many benefits.

In a word, though with technology’s leap progress, modern people’s transportation tools are indeed more advanced and convenient than the ancients, ancient people’s much travel experience still can apply to most modern scenarios, and can produce direct or indirect enlightenments for modern peoples’ travel. The reason behind this basic phenomenon is, travelling is a somewhat complex thing, which involves many aspects like diet, daily living, personal career, custom, etc, and thus, much relevant traditional experience will have multi-sided help for us. In summary, in transportation and travel, broad traditional experience’s impact will also extend to modern society.

4 Housing, Natural Environment. In terms of housing, as people’s simple common sense, modern people mostly live in modern architectures like buildings, which is quite different from the ancients, and when ancient people build the house, they do not have many modern materials such as steel, slab and cement (reinforced concrete structure wasn’t born until the beginning of the 19^th century), and therefore, the ancients’ building a house is more difficult than modern people, and it will cost more time, and also needs more energy and labor. Take the insulation and heating as another example, ancient people only have some rude methods such as furnace and fan, while modern people have many advanced devices such as air conditioning and electric fan, namely, modern people’s heat dissipation and warming is already a somewhat easy thing, while the ancients will feel somewhat difficult to dissipate heat or defend against the cold. But, despite there exist large differences in these technical level, in housing, modern people’s much experience still has similarities with the ancients, because ancient people also need to build the house and repair the building, and also have some issues like rain leakage and security, which involve many technical problems, and these many types of housing experience are somewhat consistent with modern people; meanwhile, it is easy to understand that, ancient architecture is actually also very complex, and in terms of eaves, palace and bridge, it also involves many meticulous and flexible architecture skills (like the Pyramids), and the ancient architects also summarize and accumulate a set of systematic, complex and delicate architecture skills, and these broad and delicate experience also have direct reference values for the modern practitioners. Take the daily living as another example, ancient people also need to decorate the room and keep the house clean, and also live and receive guests in their own room, which are also similarities with modern people.

As for larger space outside housing, ancient and modern people all live in the external natural environment, and in this respect, modern and ancient people also have some similarities, but with many changes, too. Both the ancient and modern people will experience the change of seasons from spring to winter, and the surrounding various kinds of trees and flowers will also flourish and wither with the seasonal change; take spring as example, in “Spring Chant” by Yu Xin, he writes: “Eyebrow and willow both become green, and face and peach are both red. The shadow is in the pool, while the flower comes into the clothes.” For modern people, they can also feel these rich visual experience, because in modern natural environment, there are also scenes like willow, peach and pool, and in spring, modern people can also see many blossoming flowers and new green leaves; in the burgeoning spring, for ancient people, they can see many trees on the sides of the somewhat rough road, while modern people can also see similar natural scenes on the sides of the broad and clean road, and they will bring people similar aesthetic and psychological feelings. Certainly, different from ancient agricultural society, in industrial society, modern people mostly live in the city, and thus, they can come into contact with many trees and grasses only by going to the parks or scenic spots, while the ancients’ living environment is closer to the lush and colorful natural scenery. To conclude, for modern people, compared with ancient times, the natural environment they live in also has many continuities, and thereby, ancient people’s various experience also continuously permeates into modern society.

5 Many psychological elements like needs. Besides the continuity and changes of dress, food, housing and transportation, another factor which deserves examining is humanity’s changes. I think we can roughly suppose, the ancients’ human elements are more or less the same as modern people, namely, many basic elements in humanity, such as sense of pride, virtue, desire, perseverance, wisdom and sense of contentment, do not change too much with technology and society’s great evolution. For example, we can specifically examine one problem, namely the basic problem of reason and sensuality, and we can easily see, during these hundreds of years, in various societies, this problem’s condition probably does not change too much, for example, in the 16^th century, Shakespeare once wrote: “If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions.”[4] For modern people living in the 21^st century, Shakespeare’s this statement is still true, because in our real life, there are still some people who can not well balance the relationship between reason and sensuality. Through this simple observation, we can realize, the broad and rich human elements do not change too much with the transition from tradition to modern society, and due to this basic reason, much experience in tradition still has their value in modern society.

Considering that needs is an important basic element in individual life, in this passage, we want to examine certain situations of individual requirements. Brilliant scholar Menger once does systematic analyses about human requirements, and firstly, he says: “In this case also men correctly consider their requirements to be fully met when they are able to have at their disposal quantities of goods sufficient for all anticipated eventualities.” Namely, Menger thinks only when quantities of goods satisfy individuals’ various needs can they be said as sufficient, which is probably a somewhat high demand; furthermore, Menger also points out human requirements’ another important characteristic, namely, human desires’ continuous growth: “A further point that must be taken into consideration here is the capacity of human needs to grow. If human needs, are capable of growth and, as is sometimes maintained, capable of infinite growth, it would appear as if this growth would extend the limits of the quantities of goods necessary for the satisfaction of human needs continually, indeed even to complete infinitely, and that therefore any advance provision by men with respect to their requirements would be made utterly impossible.”[5] Namely, Menger thinks human’s diverse requirements will continuously grow with the objective situation, and therefore, they will continually enlarge, hence, are difficult to completely satisfy, which is also an important characteristic of human requirements. Generally speaking, Menger’s these analyses are both applicable to ancient and modern people, which also illustrates that humanity’s many basic features do not correspondingly change with the evolution of technology and society, and compared with the ancients living in the 1^st century, our many features in emotion, psychology and character are still somewhat similar. Certainly, we must add that, with technology and society’s continuous growth, human emotions, after all, have many changes, enrichments and deepenings in local characteristics and overall appearance, for instance, the range of individual aesthetic sense has developed from simple things like ancient brass into complex things like mobile phone and modern house. To conclude, as for human elements, tradition and modern society also have both inherited places and some changes.

   In this section, we examine individual life’s many continuity and changes, and here, we can also feel the basic fact of individual life’s continuity through observing people’s universal life experience in different ages. In the broad fields of real life, every generation will discuss about some similar basic issue, such as money, family relationship, marriage, physical health (like backache and gastrosis, etc), career, children education, some historical figures, youth and old, superstition, the relationship between theory and practice, etc, and these universal and concrete issues will be constantly discussed by many people in every generation. Here, we can give one appropriate example, the 19^th-century writer Wang Yongbin once wrote: “The world is infinite, while life is finite, a day passes, then days decrease; wealth is fixed, while knowledge is not definite, pursuing more, then acquiring more.”[6] This sentence contains two familiar truths: value time and love knowledge, namely, the ancients also do much thinking about issues like time and knowledge, and here, his first half of the sentence is very consistent with modern people’s notion like “Time is money”, while his second half also accords with modern people’s view like “Knowledge is power”. Therefore, as every family will talk about their previous generations of elders’ many life experiences, though there are many changes in living environment and scientific products, compared with the previous generations, our life course is actually still similar. To conclude, considering the situation in many basic aspects, we can roughly think, compared with the ancients, modern people indeed have many big and small changes in individual life, but also have many inherited places.

   (III) The Continuity and Change in Social Level

   Above we roughly examine some changes and fixed places in the process from tradition to modern society in individual life level, meanwhile, if we extend our range of examination to the social totality level, we can also find many changing and fixed places between tradition and modern society.

1 The similarities and differences of profession types. If we examine many ancient and modern profession types, we can easily see, most careers in modern society also existed in ancient times, merely that modern relevant occupations are much more complex and diverse than the ancient. For example, there is also business in ancient society, and many people also do business; some of them also run restaurants and pharmacies, and they also accumulate much business experience (such as grasp business opportunity, emphasize honesty and value reputation, etc), which are the same as modern people, but, the business types modern people engaged in are, after all, much more than the ancients, for instance, there are many small businessmen in ancient times, while there are also many modern small businessmen, but modern people’s small business types are certainly more than the ancient times (like printing shops). Meanwhile, ancient people also have some technical works, and they also need to learn many crafts, and there are also many architects and doctors, etc, merely that modern people’s technical works are more diverse and more profound than the ancients. Similarly, the ancients will also participate in politics, and they will also serve as officials, and government officials also have rich political experience, which are also similarities with modern people. Likewise, in ancient society, there are also many scholars, and they will need to read books and learn, and also need to do original academic research and art creations (for example, Sophocles’ dramas in ancient Greece exactly have many similarities with 20^th-century Joyce’s novels); certainly, due to the enormous progress of many scientific and living fields, modern society’s scope of knowledge is also much broader than the ancient times. In conclusion, there are also many different career types in ancient society, and people engaged in these particular career types also have their different mindset, character features and much professional experience, which is the continuity between ancient and modern society; certainly, due to science and technology’s enormous development and social organizations’ great complication, compared with ancient, these profession types in modern society have great developments and changes.

2 Social structure’s change and continuity. In section (I), we examine the significant changes of some political and economic institutions in ancient society when they enter the modern stage, but, if we do more detailed examinations about these problems, we can still easily see, in terms of these social institutions, there are still many traditional factors in modern society. As we mention in section (I), in ancient society, people more value political behavior’s “goodness”, while modern people more emphasize “right”, but, in modern politics, when people comment on political phenomena they will still pay attention to certain government officials’ moral issue, and will also judge political figures’ moral behavior; for democracy, many political institutions in ancient times still retain in the modern stage (such as council, law, election, etc); in economy, many modern business behaviors and commercial trades can also trace back to the relevant ancient factors. Meanwhile, the ancients’ many basic notions actually all also have modern meaning, for instance, ancient people already think that freedom must be restricted by law, and the ancient Greece also value business, while the ancient Romans very value law’s function, and ancient scholars also value science’s axiomatization (such as Euclid and Archimedes’ mathematical research), and these institutions and ideas all show strong modern spirit. To conclude, there are still many traditional factors in modern society, while there also contain many modern elements in ancient tradition, and these two aspects are both important basic facts.

About social structure’s internal continuity, many scholars all now this basic truth, and as the brilliant scholar Hsiao Kung-Chuan writes: “Wang Yong once says: ‘If one people just knows the ancient, but does not know the present age, then he is pedantic.’ For the need of ‘learning for practice’, studying modern is useful and important work. But from the academic perspective, not knowing the ancient and just knowing the present, not knowing the historical context and just focusing on the current situation, the research result is easy to be superficial and fallacious.”[7] What Mr. Hsiao says here is an important fact, namely, ancient society’s various aspects, such as politics, economy, society, science, culture and law, all have comprehensive and profound impacts on every contemporary society, and therefore, to better understand contemporary society, we need to know traditional society’s various conditions. Here, another important fact is, if we see the 15^th-century Renaissance as the starting point of modern society, then, from the 15^th century, every era will all form its new tradition in the developing process; for example, in the 19^th century, its science, thought, politics and law greatly changed human society’s face, and meanwhile, many big and small things in various aspects it produced will form new tradition; namely, in every stage after the 15^th century, many things people create will also form one part of the tradition, and thereby, for every other half century, tradition’s intension in human society will have a large expansion, namely, the tradition we say does not merely include many things before the 15^thcentury, but also include many ingredients in the modern and contemporary stage, which is certainly also a basic fact we need to clearly understand.

 (IV) The Impact of Science and Technology and Science’s Continuance

Since science and technology play an enormous role in shaping modern society’s appearance, in this section, we want to examine science and technology’s differences and similarities between tradition and modern society from several perspectives.

Science and technology naturally play a decisive role in shaping modern society’s basic form, and science does not have only one field, but includes many branches, which also means that science’s impacts not only embody in one aspect, but embody in many different sides. About science’s impact on human society, we can give one simple example, with the emergence of Internet, people can watch TV series and news online, which has certain impact on people’s previous work and life habits, and also changes people’s mindset and psychological structure in some degree, namely, the emergence of one new technology will bring many changes in social and individual level, and will also generate new permutations and combinations of the old tradition. With science and technology’s continuous development, every generation’s study, life and work methods are all continually changing, and every generation’s habits of shopping, travel, social contact and communication also have many differences with the previous generation; but, it does not mean that we have abandoned our forefathers’ study, life and work methods, and the forefathers’ much experience still has their basic value and still deserves our reference; namely, due to scientific things’ strong infiltration, every generation’s work and life pattern will all have changes, but also with many successive places, namely, the relationship between tradition and modern society is largely shaped by many scientific things.

Because science and technology is one of the major forces to promote human society’s progress, the scientific factors are all important components in every society, which is true in both tradition and modern society. As for scientific elements’ spread in social scope, in today’s 21^st century, we have science fiction films like “star wars”, while in the 19^th century, due to the limitation of technology, there was so science fiction film, but then there were many science fictions (which is the precursor of science fiction film) written by people like Verne, which all enrich the scientific elements in every society. Meanwhile, as for academia, in ancient Greece, there are Pythagoras and Plato’s mathematical research, Aristotle’s physical and biological research, and in ancient Rome, there is Ptolemy’s astronomical research, and in the 19^th century, there are also many scientists in various universities, and they are all tirelessly engaged in original scientific research, while there are also many brilliant scientific scholars in the 21^st-century universities, and they also fully prepare to make new scientific discoveries. To sum up, in traditional (like ancient Greece) and modern society, there are many scientific factors, though the concrete modes of existence are continually changing, they all can well display science’s value and spirit. Because science and technology is so important for social totality, like some basic things, such as economy, politics and thought, scientific factors are all broad and necessary components in every society; while from tradition to modern society, various scientific things all have successive places, but also with many changes.

About science and technology’s development, there is still one place worth our attention, namely, after entering the modern stage, their developments still have some new important changes; we can probably think, since the second half of the 19^th century, human society’s industrialization level greatly improves, namely, since the second Industrial Revolution, science and technology’s complexity and sophistication have large improvement. For example, electric engineering as a rising field did not appear until 1950, while many new types of chemical materials also emerged in the 20^th century, and many new medicines did not exist until they were developed by certain drug companies in the 20^th century, and 20^th-century mathematical research’s range and depth also had great expansion than before; generally speaking, most familiar high-tech products, such as special steel, nitrate, electric car, synthetic material, chip and radio communication, did not appear until the second half of the 19^th century, while the technology categories in the 17^th and 18^th centuries were relatively few, and also somewhat simple. Take the scientist as example, in the 18^th century, there were still some scholars simultaneously studying many subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and geology (like Leibniz and Franklin), but in today’s 21^st century, such kind of scholar rarely exists, because, current mathematics, physics and chemistry are all broader than that time, and also more difficult. In conclusion, science and technology in the 16-18^th centuries were still somewhat shallow, and people could master much scientific knowledge even by self-study, while after the 19^th century, science’s width, depth and complexity have great improvement, which also quickly changes people’s many life habits. In other words, even if we see the Renaissance as the beginning of modern period, in the following centuries, there are still somewhat evident differences in the basic characteristics of science (and social composition), namely, we should not see modern society as a fixed thing, and its different stages (like the 18^th century and 20^th century) actually also have many changes.

Meanwhile, another important fact we need to know is that, though the nature of science and technology is innovation, and it is also many scientific things that propel our society’s continuous progress, every science and technology actually all has its own profound tradition; if we carefully analyze many innovations in science and technology, then we can easily see, most scientific innovations are actually the products of renovations, and are all based on the old discipline tradition. For example, the Dirac equation in physics is the corresponding Schrodinger equation by considering relativity effect, while the Yang-Mills theory comes from the generalization of Maxwell equations; in mathematics, Riemannian geometry is the generalization of Gauss’ intrinsic geometry, and the birth and development of topological K-theory is strongly enlightened by the algebraic K-theory; in computer, its many notions also have certain foundation in the past logic. To conclude, most scientific innovations are not the result of dreamy thought, but have many-sided profound foundations in the past scientific tradition. Correspondingly, for scientific and technological workers, to do good research, they need to fully know the previous generations of scholars’ research results, and need to know the important works of many good scholars in the previous and contemporary generations, and if he does not know the existed research of the previous generations, and only works behind closed doors, then he is difficult to make some substantial contributions. We can say that, good scholars mostly have broad and delicate mastery about the previous generations of people’s important papers and books, and only in this way can they make good innovations based on knowing many problems’ background.

 (V) The Intension of Tradition and the Interweaving of Tradition and Modern Society

Through the above analyses from several perspectives, we can see, the influence of tradition on modern society is complex and multi-faceted, and meanwhile, many modern things are also continually changing people’s old tradition. About the internal relationship between tradition and modern society, firstly, we need to recognize, tradition still has strong influence on our modern life; for example, 21^st-century people still need to read classical works such as Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in ancient Greece or Cicero’s Law in ancient Rome, and absorb abundant nutrients from them, and these works are not out of date in modern society, which illustrates that many traditional elements still have long-term vitality in modern society. Here, as a partial summarization of the above parts, we also want to simply generalize the overall intension of tradition; from the 1970s, with the appearance of certain academic groups, like communalism, academia begins to seriously look at tradition’s rich values, and some scholars such as Maclntyre, Sandel and Charles Taylor express their respect for tradition, but, they mostly restrict the impact of tradition in the ethical and political fields, namely, they think tradition has profound impacts on people’s moral behavior and life path[8] ; while some other scholars such as Hayek and Whitehead also value the meaning of tradition, and their understanding angles are somewhat different from the communalism, and they think tradition contains extensive and profound experience, which is the summation of dozens of generations’ various experience, but, their relevant expositions are also somewhat abstract and general, not concrete and detailed enough; in summary, since the latter part of the 20^th century, though academia begins to value tradition, people’s understanding about the wide intension of tradition is still not sufficient, and from this paper’s analyses, we can see, the range of tradition not only concentrates in ethical and political fields, but is much broader, and there are many different kinds of traditional experience, such as tradition in science, tradition in life experience (dress, food, housing, transportation, etc), tradition in business, etc, namely, we must extend our understandings about the overall intension of tradition. In real life, when we mention tradition, it seems to be a holistic concept, but, we must realize that tradition is not a monolithic whole, but contains many different subfields, and there are tradition in science, tradition in economy, tradition in art, tradition in daily living, etc, and these traditions have independent side, which have existed for a long time in certain range, and they will all have lasting and strong impacts on their own fields. In a word, we need to have sufficiently concrete and detailed understandings about tradition’s many faces.

    At certain occasions, we can somewhat evidently feel the dialectical relationship between tradition and modern society. For example, when we some science fiction films like “Transformers” or “Spider-Man”, we will often marvel at the scene’s spectacle and excitement, and further marvel at modern technology’s sophistication, and also admire the imagination in the film, but, if we just live in such a modern society merely shaped by science and technology, our life will be incomplete, because we also live under the complex tradition, and we still need to undertake family responsibility, and also need to know many traditional things, and also need to do business and maintain the daily life’s functioning, which are all major parts in our life. While when we watch some movies and TV series in livelihood category like “Godfather”, we will have other feelings, at this time we will think about some realistic life issues. To sum up, though modern society’s many creations are indeed impressive, many aspects of tradition are also indispensible for both the individual and society.