Feng Shui: Teaching About Science and Pseudoscience

by Michael R. Matthews

Overview

This book provides a richly documented account of the historical, cultural, philosophical and practical dimensions of feng shui. It argues that where feng shui is entrenched educational systems have a responsibility to examine its claims, and that this examination provides opportunities for students to better learn about the key features of the nature of science, the demarcation of science and non-science, the characteristics of pseudoscience, and the engagement of science with culture and worldviews.  The arguments presented for feng shui being a pseudoscience can be marshalled when considering a whole range of comparable beliefs and the educational benefit of their appraisal.

Feng shui is a deeply-entrenched, three-millennia-old system of Asian beliefs and practices about nature, architecture, health, and divination that has garnered a growing presence outside of Asia. It is part of a comprehensive and ancient worldview built around belief in chi (qi) the putative universal energy or life-force that animates all existence, the cosmos, the solar system, the earth, and human bodies. Harmonious living requires building in accord with local chi streams; good health requires replenishment and manipulation of internal chi flow; and a beneficent afterlife is enhanced when buried in conformity with chi directions. Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on the proper manipulation of internal chi by acupuncture, tai-chi and qigong exercise, and herbal dietary supplements. 

Matthews has produced another tour de force that will repay close study by students, scientists, and all those concerned to understand science, culture, and the science/culture nexus.

Harvey Siegel, Philosophy, University of Miami, USA

 

With great erudition and even greater fluidity of style, Matthews introduces us to this now-world-wide belief system.

Michael Ruse, Philosophy, Florida State University, USA

 

The book is one of the best research works published on Feng Shui. 

Wang Youjun, Philosophy, Shanghai Normal University, China

 

The history is fascinating.  The analysis makes an important contribution to science literature.

James Alcock, Psychology, York University, Canada

This book provides an in-depth study of Feng Shui in different periods, considering its philosophical, historical and educational dimensions; especially from a perspective of the ‘demarcation problem’ between science and pseudoscience.

Yao Dazhi, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030188221
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	07/18/2019
Series:	Science: Philosophy, History and Education
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Michael R. Matthews is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales.  He has degrees in Science, Psychology, Philosophy, Education and History and Philosophy of Science.  He has authored six books, edited nine anthologies, contributed forty book chapters, and published fifty journal articles in philosophy of education, history and philosophy of science, and science education.  Different of his books have been translated into Greek, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish and Korean.  He was Foundation Editor of the Springer journal Science&Education: Contributions from the History and Philosophy of Science.  He was awarded the Joseph H. Hazen Education Prize of the History of Science Society (USA) in recognition of his contributions to the teaching of history of science.  He has served as President of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group, and President of the Inter-Divisional Teaching Commission of the International Union for History and Philosophy of Science.  He served two terms as an alderman on the Council of the City of Sydney.

Table of Contents

SECTION 1 Feng Shui: Educational Responsibility and Opportunity. – 1 Introduction. – 2 The Cultural Contribution of Science Education. - SECTION 2 Feng Shui: Its Theory and Practice. – 3 Feng Shui and Chi. – 4 Feng Shui Practice. – 5 Feng Shui and Traditional Chinese Medicine. - SECTION 3 Feng Shui: A Historical-Philosophical Narrative. – 6 Matteo Ricci: A 16^th Century Appraisal of Feng Shui. – 7 Ernst Johann Eitel: A 19^th Century Appraisal of Feng Shui. – 8 Feng Shui and Westernization in Early 20^th Century China. – 9 Feng Shui, Science and Politics in Contemporary China. - Section 4 Feng Shui: Considerations from Philosophy of Science. – 10 Joseph Needham on Feng Shui and Traditional Chinese Science. – 11 The Science and Teaching of Energy. – 12 Scientific Testing of Chi Claims. – 13 Feng Shui as Pseudoscience. - SECTION 5 Conclusion. – 14 Concluding Remarks 

Editorial Reviews

This book is a tour de force. Its careful and wide-ranging scholarship makes it an essential text across the fields of history, philosophy, and sociology of science as well as science education. It should be read by all academics undertaking research on qi-based knowledge systems, especially TCM. It is also hoped that the present-day practitioners of such systems take Matthews’ arguments into consideration.” (Michael John Paton, Science & Education, Vol. 30, 2021)

From the Publisher