摘要
本文介紹並英譯〈科學之根本問題〉一文，此為身兼科學家與佛教徒的王小徐（1875-1948）於1926年所發表的一篇短文。「唯科學主義」是一種極端的邏輯實證主義，聲稱自然科學是回答有關事實和價值問題的唯一權威觀點。雖然王小徐沒有使用「唯科學主義」一詞，但其的確是他主要的批判對象。這種唯物論的立場在中國從1910年代晚期開始流行，它對包含佛學在內的多種本體論與認識論主張提出嚴重的挑戰。王小徐大體上不反對科學，但是他相信唯科學主義的散播將會導致暴力日益嚴重的唯物社會。結果，他藉由強調科學方法的認識限制來批判它絕對觀點的權威性，同時拒絕笛卡爾的二元論而認同「萬法唯識」的大乘佛教立場。
並列摘要
This article introduces and translates ＂The Basic Problematic of Science＂ (Kexue zhi genben wenti 科學之根本問題), a short essay published in 1926 by the scientist and lay Buddhist Wang Xiaoxu 王小徐 (1875-1948). Although he did not use the term, the target of Wang's essay was scientism, an extreme form of logical positivism which claims that natural science is the sole authority for answering questions of both fact and value. This materialist position became popular in China from the late 1910s, and it posed a serious challenge to a wide variety of ontological and epistemological claims, including those made within Buddhist circles. While he did not oppose science in general, Wang believed the spread of scientism would lead to an increasingly violent and materialistic society. As a result, he critiqued the authority of its absolutist view by emphasizing the epistemic limits of the scientific method, and by rejecting its Cartesian dualism in favor of the Mahāyāna Buddhist position that ＂the myriad dharmas are consciousness-only＂ (wanfa weishi 萬法唯識).