远德玉教授是中国本土技术哲学东北学派的开创者之一,其提出的技术形态论和技术过程论已经成为了国内理解和解释技术的基本理论原型之一。在本次访谈中,远德玉教授不仅回顾了个人的成长、家庭、教育和工作经历,为当代技术哲学从业者们更好地理解中国技术哲学的研究特征、研究主题、研究方法等提供了宏观的时代、文化语境;还分享了其与陈昌曙教授从相识相知到成为学术挚友共同推进中国技术哲学发展的整个过程。远教授指出自己技术论思想主要受日本技术论学者研究的启发和影响,并回忆了20世纪80年代他与一众学者为推动技术成为一个独立的研究对象而作的各种学术努力,还原了中国技术哲学早期发展的完整系谱。最后,远教授以科学形态论为基础讨论了古代中西方在表述人类对自然的认识上存在的形态差异,认为中国古代科学主要表现为实用自然知识探究,主张对这一文化基因中一以贯之的实用性予以恰当反思,并指出儒家哲学与科学技术发展之间没有直接相关性。

Yuan Deyu is one of the founders of the “Northeastern School” of Chinese philosophy of technology and has proposed the“technology form theory” and “technology as process” as key ideas for understanding technology in the Chinese context. This is thesecond time that Yuan has been interviewed by Carl Mitcham, one of the greatest living Western philosophers of technology. In thefirst interview, published in 2018 in the same journal, Yuan recounted how and when the Chinese philosophy of technology originatedfrom the very beginning, in what kind of context it developed and what its current dilemma, etc., based on his own engagement,correcting some of the current discussions about Chinese philosophy of technology among scholars both Chinese and Western, suchas whether there should be an empirical turn for Chinese philosophy of technology or does it originated from a book or article, etc. Inorder to have a comprehensive understanding of both him as an important Chinese philosopher of technology and Chinese philosophyof technology, in this interview, we followed up with further questions of a more personal character, especially about his life. As weall know, a person’s life experience will have a great impact on how he perceive the world. In the beginning, Yuan recalled hispersonal growth, family background, and work experience, which provide a broad context for contemporary philosophers oftechnology to better understand the unique characteristics, themes, and methods of Chinese philosophy of technology. He shared hismemories of how his acquaintance with Chen Changshu grew into close friendship. They co-authored many books and articles to callfor independent academic attention to technology, which turned out to promote the development of Chinese philosophy of technologyand determined the characteristics of Northeastern school. He also highly praised Chen’s monograph, “Introduction to Philosophy ofTechnology” Yuan pointed out that his thoughts on technology were primarily influenced by the research of Japanese scholars ontechnology theory, which is why he preferred to classify his research in the field of sociology of technology rather than philosophy oftechnology. He recalled the various academic efforts he had made with a group of scholars in the 1980s to promote technology as anindependent research object, reconstructing the complete historical development of early Chinese philosophy of technology.Additionally, he also brought attention to the morphological differences between ancient China and the West in expressing humanunderstanding of nature, based on scientific formality. He illuminated the fact that ancient China primarily emphasized practical,empirical knowledge about natural phenomena. In his view, confucian philosophy has had a profound impact on the development ofChinese technology due to its constraints on research themes within ancient Chinese society.