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Is Fengshui Science or Superstition? A New Criterion for Judging the Value of Knowledge Systems
ZHANG Yong-feng, DAI Wei
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2013.01.008
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Fengshui, which can be translated as Wind-Water literally in English, is an ancient Chinese system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of Qi, and whose favorable or unfavorable effects are taken into account when sitting and designing buildings. Similar systems exist in many other cultures such as Vastu Shastra in India, which consists of precepts born out of a traditional and archaic view on how the laws of nature affect human dwellings. Although prospered in ancient society, modern reactions to Fengshui are mixed. The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience states that principles of Fengshui are quite rational, but folk remedies and superstitions have been incorporated into its eclectic mix. In this paper, we do not distinguish Fengshui and other similar systems between science and superstition, but try to propose a criterion for judging whether a knowledge system is valuable, and if so, to whom it is valuable. We will end up arguing that, a knowledge system satisfying the criterion of relatively true property is valuable at least to its community of believers, and the problem of whether a knowledge system has greater value is essentially a problem of whether it is relatable to other knowledge systems, so as to expand its community of believers.
philosophy of science, superstition, Fengshui, relatively true property
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