Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics: Mathematics, History and Politics in the Work of Wu Wen-Tsun (2014)
Hudecek, Jiri (Author)
Routledge
Physical Details: xii + 210 pp.; index; bibl.
Language: English
Twentieth-century China has been caught between a desire to increase its wealth and power in line with other advanced nations, which, by implication, means copying their institutions, practices and values, whilst simultaneously seeking to preserve China’s independence and historically formed identity. Over time, Chinese philosophers, writers, artists and politicians have all sought to reconcile these goals and this book shows how this search for a Chinese way penetrated even the most central, least contested area of modernity: science. Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics is a study of the life of one of modern China’s most admired scientific figures, the mathematician Wu Wen-Tsun. Negotiating the conflict between progress and tradition, he found a path that not only ensured his political and personal survival, but which also brought him renown as a mathematician of international status who claimed that he stood outside the dominant western tradition of mathematics. Wu Wen-Tsun’s story highlights crucial developments and contradictions in twentieth -century China, the significance of which extends far beyond the field of mathematics. On one hand lies the appeal of radical scientific modernity, "mechanisation" in all its forms, and competitiveness within the international scientific community. On the other is an anxiety to preserve national traditions and make them part of the modernisation project. Moreover, Wu’s intellectual development also reflects the complex relationship between science and Maoist ideology, because his turn to history was powered by his internalisation of certain aspects of Maoist ideology, including its utilitarian philosophy of science. This book traces how Wu managed to combine political success and international scientific eminence, a story that has wider implications for a new century of increasing Chinese activity in the sciences. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese history, the history of science and the history and philosophy of mathematics.
...MoreReview Iwo Amelung (2020) Review of "Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics: Mathematics, History and Politics in the Work of Wu Wen-Tsun". East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (pp. 169-174).
Review Karine Chemla (2016) Review of "Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics: Mathematics, History and Politics in the Work of Wu Wen-Tsun". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 894-896).
Review Ubiratan D'Ambrosio (2016) Review of "Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics: Mathematics, History and Politics in the Work of Wu Wen-Tsun". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 143-144).
Similar Citations
Book
Dario Generali;
(2016)
Le Radici della Razionalità Critica: Saperi, Pratiche, Teleologie. Studi offerti a Fabio Minazzi
(/isis/citation/CBB543052276/)
Chapter
Rolando Bellini;
(2016)
Un fecondo dialogo filosofico: note sparse sugli incontri di lavoro con Fabio Minazzi
(/isis/citation/CBB116050785/)
Chapter
Jean Petitot;
(2016)
"Sutor, ne supra crepidam". Le rationalisme critique et les sciences sociales
(/isis/citation/CBB711745777/)
Chapter
Dario Generali;
(2016)
Per un razionalista critico. Le ragioni di un volume
(/isis/citation/CBB181507962/)
Article
Marco Mazzeo;
(2013)
Gli errori di Darwin? Evoluzione e storia naturale
(/isis/citation/CBB744523130/)
Book
Dario Generali;
(2016)
Le Radici della Razionalità Critica: Saperi, Pratiche, Teleologie. Studi offerti a Fabio Minazzi
(/isis/citation/CBB605863308/)
Chapter
Evandro Agazzi;
(2016)
Il valore culturale della scienza
(/isis/citation/CBB882918228/)
Chapter
Mario Capanna;
(2016)
Un razionalista neoilluminista
(/isis/citation/CBB824720166/)
Article
James A. Secord;
(2023)
Inventing the Scientific Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB685993081/)
Thesis
Ellison, Brooke Mackenzie;
(2012)
Life Lines: Stem Cell Research in a Globalized World
(/isis/citation/CBB001562809/)
Article
Silvia Caianiello;
(2020)
Accelerazione. Riflessioni sulle temporalità della pandemia
(/isis/citation/CBB072366901/)
Article
Stefania Achella;
(2020)
Ragioni della scienza e ragioni politiche. Alcune considerazioni filosofiche
(/isis/citation/CBB319793049/)
Article
Gerardo Ienna;
(2023)
The social and political roots of the institutionalization of the history of physics in Italy
(/isis/citation/CBB901020636/)
Article
George Borg;
(2020)
On 'the application of science to science itself:' Chemistry, instruments, and the scientific labor process
(/isis/citation/CBB166777080/)
Chapter
Chun, Allen;
(2012)
From Sinicization to Indigenization in the Social Sciences: Is That All There Is?
(/isis/citation/CBB001202163/)
Book
Guzzone;
(2023)
Ogni uomo è scienziato. Dialettica e scienze della natura nei Quaderni del carcere di Gramsci
(/isis/citation/CBB364285580/)
Article
Jamie Shaw;
(2021)
Feyerabend and manufactured disagreement: reflections on expertise, consensus, and science policy
(/isis/citation/CBB740430654/)
Book
Giovanni Vailati;
Claudia Arrighi;
Paola Cantù;
Mauro De Zan;
Patrick Suppes;
(2010)
Logic and Pragmatism: Selected Essays by Giovanni Vailati
(/isis/citation/CBB877530276/)
Article
Ginevra Sanvitale;
(2023)
"Science gave us nothing": women and technology in Italian feminism as a radical science movement (1970s-1980s)
(/isis/citation/CBB577987529/)
Article
Jing Zhu;
Mingjun Zhang;
Michael Weisberg;
(2020)
Why does the Chinese public accept evolution?
(/isis/citation/CBB639691803/)
Be the first to comment!