TO FORM SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF OUTER ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

"Shizen," an equivalent for "nature" in Japanese science education, has two different types of concept: the scientific one which intends to objectify nature and the inherent one with which Japanese people tend to identify themselves. Japanese Science Education cannot dispense with the latter which has been developed independently of the scientific one. Since Life Environment Study, the newly introduced subject into elementary school, stresses the inherent concept, a certain consideration is necessary for the relationship between Science and Life Environment Study. Only when the two concepts are distinguished from each other, it becomes possible for students to grasp these concepts exactly. Science which intends to teach the scientific concept must be aware of the significance of the inherent one simultaneously; unfortunately, very little attention has been paid to it in Japan. By means of epistemology, the theory of knowledge, an appropriate investigation can be carried out on the relationship between them; an effort at epistemology means that the universality of science is judged from the Japanese inherent view of outer environment. In order to recognize the inherent concept of "shizen," it is helpful to analyze English-translation of "shizen" appearing in literary works originally written in Japanese. An intensive effort to distinguish the inherent concept from the scientific one will develop our view of outer environment: the objective of Science Education. Our result will play a stimulative role in westerner's epistemology because it implies the judgement of the universality of science from the inherent concept of nature, "shizen."