Em busca da ciência chinesa

In Search of Chinese Science
John Derbyshire

One of my schoolmasters was fond of saying that there are only two worthwhile forms of worldly immortality: to get a poem in the Oxford Book of English Verse, or to have a mathematical theorem named after you. The British scholar Joseph Needham (1900–1995) was no better than a passable amateur poet, judging by the handful of verses in Simon Winchester’s biography of him. He did have a scientific training, but it was in biochemistry, not math, so there is no Needham’s Theorem, nor even a Needham Conjecture. He does, though, enjoy the rare distinction of having a Question named for him. Not a mere question, but a Question, one that has generated endless discussion and many theories.

Needham was an exceptionally brilliant man, whose scholarly career spanned two separate regions of human knowledge. How he got from the one region to the other, and what he accomplished—most especially in the second region—are fascinating to read about. Winchester’s biography gives an excellent account of the man and his work. The Question turns up two-thirds of the way through, by which time Needham was a Cambridge don. He had conceived the idea of writing a book with the title Science and Civilisation in China. In May 1948, he accordingly submitted a proposal to Cambridge University Press. Winchester reproduces the first page of that proposal. The book is to be addressed, says Needham, “to all educated people...who are interested in the history of science, scientific thought, and technology, in relation to the general history of civilisation, and especially the comparative development of Asia and Europe.” Then the Question, in two parts:

Why did [Chinese] science always remain empirical, and restricted to theories of primitive or mediaeval type? What were the inhibiting factors in their civilisation which prevented the rise of modern science in Asia?

...

Read more here/Leia mais aqui.

Free PDF Grátis.