Article ID: CBB798627236

A Great (Scientific) Divergence: Synergies and Fault Lines in Global Histories of Science (2019)

unapi

Historians of science have a lingering Europe (and U.S.) problem, even as the field has undergone its own transnational, imperial, and global turns that have broadened its scope. Likewise, area studies scholars have a lingering science problem, in spite of the growing chorus of voices insisting that non-European peoples’ knowledge and innovations warrant a place in global histories about science, technology, and medicine. This essay examines these two fault lines using the biochemist-turned-historian Joseph Needham as a point of departure. Needham’s studies of science in China not only decentered Europe but also raised central questions about how science and its companions, reality and reason, would be defined. The essay takes a closer look at debates arising from these fault lines and urges scholars to experiment with polycentric histories of science that are coterminous and intersecting. It also underscores the need for new syntheses of research on the ways intellectuals, bricoleurs, and polities the world over have generated and transformed ideas and tools, and set them in motion.

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Authors & Contributors
Needham, Joseph
Mei, Jianjun
Golas, Peter J.
Fan, Fa-ti
Chen, Buyun
Zhang, Baichun
Concepts
History of science, as a discipline
History of technology, as a discipline
Historiography
Global history
Methodology
East Asia, civilization and culture
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century
Early modern
Ancient
20th century, late
Places
China
Taiwan
East Asia
Asia
Southeast Asia
Korea
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