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Article ID: CBB952406401

Needham, Matter, Form, and Us (April 2019)

Technology and Culture
Volume: 60
Issue: 2
Pages: 574-582

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/726939

DOI: 10.1353/tech.2019.0037

ISSN: 0040-165X; 1097-3729

Publication Date: April 2019
Edition Details: Themed articles on Joseph Needham's "Science ad Civilization in China"
Language: English

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Joseph Needham offered a vision of history that united his understanding of the physical world with his interpretation of social process, in which the material, social, and ideal realms were reciprocally constituted. This essay explores Needham's ideas about matter and form to show how he developed a systematic theory of materialism in his early writings on science and social change. Shifting the ground of discourse in Needham's project from "science" to "materialism," the essay brings him into conversation with new materialists to reflect on the ongoing challenges in theorizing the relationship between social and material phenomena. Calling into question an all-encompassing materiality that sacrifices the role of determinate structures and histories in the production of the world, the essay asks: How can we formulate a framework of material/-ity/-ism that does not dispense with or occlude the already embedded politics of culture, social relations of production, and historical contingency?

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Includes Series Articles

Article Mei, Jianjun (April 2019) Some Reflections on Joseph Needham's Intellectual Heritage. Technology and Culture (pp. 594-603). unapi

Included in

Article Nappi, Carla; Wark, McKenzie (April 2019) Reading Needham Now. Technology and Culture (pp. 562-573). unapi

Article Kuijpers, Maikel H. G. (April 2019) Materials and Skills in the History of Knowledge: An Archaeological Perspective from the "Non-Asian" Field. Technology and Culture (pp. 604-615). unapi

Article Baichun; Miao (April 2019) Joseph Needham's Research on Chinese Machines in the Cross-Cultural History of Science and Technology. Technology and Culture (pp. 616-624). unapi

Article Tilley (April 2019) A Great (Scientific) Divergence: Synergies and Fault Lines in Global Histories of Science. Technology and Culture (pp. 583-593). unapi

Article Hsia; Schäfer (April 2019) Introduction to Themed articles on Joseph Needham's "Science and Civilization in China". Technology and Culture (pp. 554-561). unapi

Article Moon (April 2019) Editor's Note: Themed articles on Joseph Needham. Technology and Culture (pp. 553-553). unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB952406401/

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