Needham and related questions:
Joseph_Needham
1.“ “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?”, and why it “had not developed in Chinese civilization” which in the previous many centuries “was much more efficient than occidental in applying” natural knowledge to practical needs? [16] [17]
"Gunpowder, the magnetic compass, and paper and printing, which Francis Bacon considered as the four most important inventions facilitating the West's transformation from the Dark Ages to the modern world, were invented in China".[18] Needham's works attribute significant weight to the impact of Confucianism and Taoism on the pace of Chinese scientific discovery, and emphasises the "diffusionist" approach of Chinese science as opposed to a perceived independent inventiveness in the western world. Needham thought the notion that the Chinese script had inhibited scientific thought was "grossly overrated".” from Wikipedia.
2. The great divergence is the growing economic gap between west and china over 1100 years. And little divergence is the growing gap between northern and Southern Europe.
3.Modernity from Emmanuel Todd:
First hint from [A], page 33, "...urbanization, industrialization and the spread of literacy, in short by modernization..."
Second hint from [B], pages 2-3, "This is a cultural development, beyond the realm of the material. Cultural development first shows up as a rise in the rate of literacy....In the second stage, a fall in the rates of mortality and fertility follows the rise of literacy. Man thus takes control of his immediate biological environment. Only in the third stage does development appear as an increase in the production of industrial goods or, more generally, material wealth"
A) The Explanation of Ideology: Family Structures and Social Systems, Translated by David Garrioch, 1985 B)The Causes of Progress: Culture, Authority and Change, Translated by Richard Boulind, 1987
Two recent books:
Davids, Karel. Religion, Technology, and the Great and Little Divergences. China and Europe Compared, c. 700-1800.
Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East’ by Jared Rubin.
Todd uses family systems to gauge changes. The two recent books use the institutions spawned by religions to gauge changes.
From a review of the second book:
“By combining an institutional argument with religion through the effect that religion had on institutions and politics (rather than on cultural beliefs), Rubin’s argument is reminiscent of an important recent book by Karel Davids, which has not thus far received sufficient attention (Davids, 2013). Both books, in a different way, stress how religious institutions mattered regardless of the precise content of religion. Davids, however, emphasizes another aspect, namely the role of religion in the generation and dissemination of technology. Rubin is primarily interested in institutions that support markets. “
The first book considers:
The aim is to connect the four debates:
1 Religion and visions of nature
2 Religion and Human Capital Formation
3 Religion and circulation of technical knowledge
4 Religion and technical innovation
I am trying to read and trying to understand around these topics.
