摘要： “科学”一直被视为西方现代性的关键后果之一，其既是欧洲工业革命的智识基础，也是殖民统治的道德论据。19 世纪以来，科学话语深度重塑了西方人文和社科研究，同时也对非洲现代思想的形成产生了深刻的影响。考察现代非洲知识生产中的科学话语有两条重要线索：其一，早期泛非写作使用兰克史学的实证方法论证非洲文明的正当性，而无法从科学方法论背后的文明等级图谱中解放出来；其二，民族独立运动时期非洲知识分子将科学的普遍性转化为科学解放的可能性，将科学的抽象客观性上升到民族独立和现代化事业的具体事务中。在这两条线索中，作为西方霸权的“科学”逐渐转化为抵抗和解放的“科学”，并且具有一种新的普遍性潜能。

关键词: 科学, 帝国, 非洲, 知识生产, 实证主义

Abstract: “Science” has long been regarded as one of the pivotal consequences of Western modernity, serving as both the intellectual foundation of the European Industrial Revolution and the moral justification for colonial rule. Since the nineteenth century, scientific discourse has profoundly reshaped Western humanities and social sciences while exerting a deep influence on the formation of modern African thought. This study identifies two critical threads in the examination of scientific discourse within modern African knowledge production: First, early Pan African writing employed the empirical methodology of Rankean historiography to argue for the legitimacy of African civilizations, yet remained tethered to the civilizational hierarchy inherent in scientific methodology. Second, during the era of national independence movements, African intellectuals transformed the universality of science into the possibility of scientific liberation, elevating the abstract objectivity of science into the concrete pursuit of national independence and modernization. Across these two trajectories, “science” as a tool of Western hegemony was gradually reconfigured into a “science” as a tool of resistance and emancipation, manifesting a new potential for universality.

Key words: science, empire, Africa, knowledge production, positivism