Introduction

Abstract

Joseph Needham’s pioneering studies Science and Civilization in China that began more than five decades ago has spawned a vast body of literature that looks not only at the contributions of Chinese science and technology to modern science, but also similar contributions made by other traditions of science—in particular the Indian and Arabic-Muslim. Such accommodation of Asian traditions of science into modern science raises a whole host of historical, epistemological, and sociological concerns that have yet to be systematically integrated into mainstream science studies. While the significance of Needham’s contributions has been acknowledged, there has been a tendency to insulate his studies, and others inspired by his works, from mainstream history, philosophy, and sociology of science. This has been noted by Mark Elvin in his introduction to the 2004 volume of the series Science and Civilization in China in which Needham lays out his final conclusions and reflections on his monumental work. Elvin writes:

What is hard to come to terms with, almost half a century after the appearance of the first volume in 1954, is the limited assimilation of Needham’s work into the bloodstream of the history of science in general; that is, outside the half-occluded universe of East Asian specialists and a handful of experts sensitive to the decisive contributions of comparisons. For these to be useful, there has to be enough in common between the two domains to make comparisons and contrasts relevant, and enough differences to make such juxtapositions reveal critically distinctive aspects of one or the other.¹