http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=fWWbHevl_wI

What are the assumptions?

Scientists versus historians
Question: What are the Four Great
Inventions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions


(Papermaking)
(Compass)
(Gunpowder)
(Printing)


()

5
6


 The Four Great Inventions

All were from China.

So, science/technology was
advanced in ancient China. Right?

Wait!
Advanced? Compared to what?
Defines science first!
 Needhams Grant Question
(The Needham Question)

Why China had been overtaken by the

West in science and technology, despite
its earlier successes?

9
Why did science not emerge in China?

Chien Mu () and Needham redirected us to

the question:
Why did science emerge in Europe?

Chien Mu suggested that the primary cause was

the rise of middle class ().
Needham suggested it was the rise of the
bourgeoisie () that gave rise to science.
(Bourgeoisie: who owned property)

Needhams bourgeoisie Chiens middle class

10
 Chien Mu (18951990)
Wikipedia, Ch'ien Mu

Courtesy name: Pinsi

()
(ChienPinsi)
Ancestral home in
Wushi, Jiangsu Province
()
Historian, Confucian,
educator.

Chien and his wife (1967)

Source:
11
 Chien Pinsi: Life
received little formal modern education.
learnt Chinese history and culture through
traditional home study.
taught at many universities in mainland China.
1949: came to Hong Kong.

1950: cofounded New

Asia College ()
 Chien Pinsi: Life

1965: retired from New

Asia College.
In late years, he nearly
lost all his sight.
He could not revise his
last book on his own.
His wife read it aloud to
help him do revision.

13
 Chen Fong Ching ()

Born in 1939.
Formerly
senior lecturer at CUHK
Physics, University Secretary,
Director of the Institute of
Chinese Studies (ICS)

14
 Heritage and Betrayal

Why did modern science

emerge in Western
civilization?

15
 Heritage and Betrayal

Chen argued that ancient Chinese science was

not as advanced as Needham believed.
Therefore Needhams question is out of
question.
Two factors that led to the emergence of
modern science in Western civilization were
the close relationship between science and
religion.
the two revolutions that led to ancient Greek
science and Newtonian physics.
16
 Nathan Sivin

known as Xiwen ()
an American author, scholar,
sinologist, historian, essayist,
currently professor emeritus
at the University of
Pennsylvania

Nathan Sivin (1931-)

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~nsivin/ 17
Why do people keep asking why the Scientific
Revolution did not take place in China when
they know enough not to waste time explaining
why their names did not appear on page 3 of
todays newspaper?
Text 10a, Para. 19

What does Sivin mean?

18
Core Question:

What has the scientific revolution

revolutionized?

19
 Text
o Nathan Sivin, Why the
Scientific Revolution
Did Not Take Place in
China or Didnt it?
o Shen Kua, Brush Talks
from Dream Brook

20
 Needhams Scientific Revolution problem

Why did modern science, the mathematization of

hypotheses about Nature, with all its implications for
advanced technology, take its meteoric rise only in the West
at the time of Galileo?
Why modern science had not developed in Chinese
civilization?
why, between the first century B.C. and the fifteenth
century A.D., Chinese civilization was much more efficient
than occidental in applying human natural knowledge to
practical human needs.
Para. 3
 A: If Scientific Revolution had happened
in China, it would result the same social
A: Scientific Revolution in the West consequences as in the West.
led to modern science. No modern
science in China implies no Q: What change during Scientific
Scientific Revolution in China Revolution in the West that might
have lead to modern science?
Why modern science had not developed in Chinese
civilization?

A: Superiority of Chinese A: Application of Chinese

science over western science science in daily life
why, between the first century B.C. and the fifteenth
century A.D., Chinese civilization was much more efficient
than occidental in applying human natural knowledge to
practical human needs.
Q: What standard of science
at that time? Para. 3
How did Sivin respond to the problem?
 Contents (Text 10a) A: Superiority of Chinese science over
western science;
A: Application of Chinese science in daily life;
I. Introduction (Para. 1-3) Q: What standard of science in that time?
II. The absence of unity in Chinese science (Para.
4-17)
III. The nature of the Scientific Revolution
A: The same social
Problem (Para. 18-25) consequences if Scientific
IV. Modern science is not value-free in other Revolution did happen in China
dimension (Para. 26-34)
V. Fallacies of Historical Reasoning (Para. 35-51) Q: What change during
VI. Dimensions of the Scientific Revolution (Para. Scientific Revolution in
the West?
52-58)
VII. Scientific Revolution in China (Para. 59-68) A: Scientific Revolution in
the West led to modern
VIII. Conclusion (Para. 69-72) science, no Scientific
Revolution in China.
 Two conclusions
This essay makes the case for two conclusions. First, why
the scientific revolution did not take place in China is not
a question that historical research can answer. It becomes
a useful question primarily when one locates the fallacies
that lead people to ask it. Second, a scientific revolution, by
the criteria that historians of science use, did take place in
China in the eighteenth century. It did not, however, have
the social consequences that we assume a scientific
revolution will have.
Text 10a, Para. 1
Case study: Shen Kua (,
1031-1095) who was one of the
most versatile figures in the
history of Chinese science and
engineering.

Sivins conclusion (Text10a, Para. 8-17):

showed no combined insights to form a general
understanding.
 Shen Kuo (, 1031-1095)

Politician and scientist

of Song Dynasty.
wrote many books but
most are lost.
Most famous: Brush
Talks from Dream Brook

Text 10b:

1975
(English translation available in
the textbook)

304
307
357
430
437
Poor Shen
Shen Kuo had two marriages; the second wife was the
daughter of Zhang Chu (), who came from Huainan.
Lady Zhang was said to be overbearing and fierce, often
abusive to Shen Kuo, even attempting at one time to pull
off his beard. Shen Kuo's children were often upset over
this, and prostrated themselves to Lady Zhang to quit this
behavior. Despite this, Lady Zhang went as far as to drive
out Shen Kuo's son from his first marriage, expelling him
from the household. However, after Lady Zhang died, Shen
Kuo fell into a deep depression and even attempted to
jump into the Yangtze River to drown himself. Although
this suicide attempt failed, he would die a year later.
(Wikipedia)
 Contents
I. Introduction (Para. 1-3)
II. The absence of unity in Chinese science (Para. 4-17)
III. The nature of the Scientific Revolution Problem
(Para. 18-25)
IV. Modern science is not value-free in other dimension
(Para. 26-34)
V. Fallacies of Historical Reasoning (Para. 35-51)
VI. Dimensions of the Scientific Revolution (Para. 52-58)
VII. Scientific Revolution in China (Para. 59-68)
VIII. Conclusion (Para. 69-72)
 Theorization is a
necessary condition
Western Scientific
theorization
revolution

the Book of Changes

is an inhibiting factor
China The Book of Scientific
Changes revolution

Why are both cases fallacies? (Para. 35-51)

Growth of science: Five stages

1. The primitive stage

2. The medieval stage
3. Renaissance science
4. 19th-century modern science
5. 20th-century attempts

JosephNeedham, Science and Civilisation in China Vol. 7

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Five stages of the growth of science:
1. The primitive stage

How these features affect

the speed?
 Five stages of the growth of science:
2. The medieval stage

Jean Buridan (13001358), Nicole Oresme

(13201382), and others

Sophisticated techniques were differentiated,

and general principles were tried to
formulated.
 Five stages of the growth of science:
3. Renaissance science

Newton (1642-1727), John Locke(1632-1704),

and others
Universal laws were believed to apply to
nature, but individual sciences were not
thought of as components of one general
Science. Differing conceptions of science
were held by different philosophers.
 Five stages of the growth of science:
4. 19th-century modern science

Science is thought of
as a unity.
 Five stages of the growth of science:
5. 20th-century attempts

Philosophical reflection of science.

Structure of science
Methods of science
unification
falsifiability
Scientific revolution
Readand determine at what stage in
Shen Kuos time.
 Think about it

o Why are combined insights important to

the development of science?
o Any differences and similarities in learning
/ research methods / etc among history,
science, and your profession.
Enjoy reading

38