Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 2: History of Scientific Thought

Science and Civilisation in China #2

by Joseph Needham

The second volume of Dr Joseph Needham's great work Science and Civilisation in China is devoted to the history of scientific thought. Beginning with ancient times, it describes the Confucian milieu in which arose the organic naturalism of the great Taoist school, the scientific philosophy of the Mohists and Logicians, and the quantitative materialism of the Legalists. Thus we are brought on to the fundamental ideas which dominated scientific thinking in the Chinese middle ages. The author opens his discussion by considering the remote and pictographic origins of words fundamental in scientific discourse, and then sets forth the influential doctrines of the Two Forces and the Five Elements. Subsequently he writes of the important sceptical tradition, the effects of Buddhist thought, and the Neo-Confucian climax of Chinese naturalism. Last comes a discussion of the conception of Laws of Nature in China and the West.

Genres: China, History, Science, Nonfiction, Asia, Philosophy, History Of Science

722 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 1956

About the author

Joseph Needham was a British biochemist, historian and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and a fellow of the British Academy in 1971. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the Companionship of Honour, and the Royal Society noted he was the only living person to hold these three titles.

Reviews

[Angela Randall]

It's really rare to find Science and Civilisation in China as a single volume. It's probably best to look for the individual sections and buy the lot. Although, after volume 3, each volume tends to be split into several parts. So, it's going to be a huge pain.

Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 1
Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 2
Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 3

[Hock Tjoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many volumes in Needham's heroic series on Science and Civilization go into great detail about how things were done, from agriculture to ship-building. This volume, one of the earlier ones, is Needham's attempt to understand Chinese thought and he has given us an approachable study of Confucianism and Daoism that other more specialized sinologists have overwhelmed with too much nuance and obscured with too much detail. Perhaps the specialists are right, but Needham is readable.

[Xinyuan Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very dense text but worthwhile introduction to the history of "science" as is understood in European and North American and East Asian languages, and how the European Enlightenment was shaped by historical contributions from ancient China.

The reason I know anything about this book is that my father used to obsess about Mr Needham's works all the time ever since Singapore first industrialised. This is because his father was a small farmer that practised pre-modern farming in western Singapore (Lim Chu Kang region), and he wanted to know, after becoming a physics teacher, WHY western scientists ate stuff that his Papa did not consider food. Since none of the western scientists he studied under, could explain this choice, he ended up studying History of Science (PhD) in eastern China, just after good relations were rebuilt between China and Singapore following the end of the Cold War, at the beginning of the Deng reforms, and his intention in doing so was to find out WHY China became shitty.

The reason I went to study Earth and Environment Sciences in Germany was that nobody in the English-speaking sphere seemed to have the answer as to WHY western scientists ate these strange foods that my Papa's Papa would have considered non-food, and then my Papa, Mama, and me discussed this for a long time, concluded that I should learn German language in school since I could not learn Malay, tried our best to do lots of traditional Hindu hathayoga to discuss this odd suspiciousness of Anglophone scientists with some Indian Singaporean friends, and then they were the ones that suggested I study in Germany.

Unfortunately, nobody in Germany had the answer either, but at least they were aware that it is not a good idea to bully plants and animals. Then Bayer bought over Monsanto, and made a production plant that has landed in western Singapore, and my plans to go and learn some resting have been FOILED. I am not pleased.