明末至清前期的 “西学”，有自身的核心关切、内在结构和话语系统。从当时的 “西学”、“天学”、“性学”和 “超性学”等概念的历史和内涵角度，来把握相关问题，能增进今人的理解。当时的西学，也存在助益近代性的因素和超越时空的文化蕴涵。前者主要表现为实证的 “全球意识”的引入，随之而来的时空观念的变化，以及以演绎推理为主的逻辑方法的传导及其意义等方面; 后者则可从当时创译并流传开来的大量新名词新概念的价值，或一些长期被遗忘的人文学科译著的内涵挖掘等方面，来加以解读。

The western learning during the Late Ming and Early Qing Period had its own essential concern，internal structure and system of discourse.A study on the historical changes of the concepts such as“the western learning”or“xixue”，“tianxue”，“xingxue”and“chao xingxue”and their connotations will further our understandings about related problems． The western learning at that time also embraced factors that helped promote modernity as well as cultural implications that transcended time and space． The former primarily manifested in the introduction of the authentic“global awareness”，the changes of notion about time and space that came along with it，and the dissemination of the logical methods and its meaning，the main body of which was deductivereasoning; the latter can be examined by reviewing the value of the new terms and the new concepts created and spread in the process of translation，or by excavating the contents of some of the long-forgotten translations of works in humanities．