Joseph Needham’s The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West seeks to answer the question of why modern science developed in the Western world and not in China. He answers this question by “titrating,” or essentially comparing, scientific and technological advancements between China and the West. To conduct his comparison, he investigates the relationship, in both civilizations, between science and a variety of topics. The topics that Needham covers include politics, economics, societal changes, conceptions of time, the growth of human and natural laws, and even philosophies. Throughout his investigation of these topics, Needham ultimately makes many points about science in China and the West that can been seen throughout the
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One of the first that can be seen is the positive relationship between science and the government. The Chinese government was always interested in the work of astronomers, artisans, engineers, technicians, and other scientists. The interest was so great that these scientists often conducted their work in parts of the imperial palace, and were even supervised by officials in imperial workshops (pg. 24). Science can even be seen as helping to create the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy, “was conditioned by the immense and early growth of hydraulic engineering works in Chinese society…the development of rivers, canals, and sluices must devolve upon the central authority” (pg. 181-182). In other words, advancements in hydraulic technology led to the need for a main body, which became the bureaucracy, to oversee water-based projects throughout …show more content…
In the West, natural laws were thought to be established by a Creator Deity for all objects of the natural world to obey. During the Renaissance, Westerners conducted investigations to find out what the laws were in order to understand the relationship of objects in the natural world (pg. 35). Natural laws to the Chinese, however, were about how human society should behave based off of a hierarchy. In China, “since natural law was never thought of as law, and took a special name, Li, it was very hard to think of it as in any way applicable outside human society” (pg. 325). Therefore, Chinese people never had a reason to investigate the laws of objects in the natural world outside of
One of the first that can be seen is the positive relationship between science and the government. The Chinese government was always interested in the work of astronomers, artisans, engineers, technicians, and other scientists. The interest was so great that these scientists often conducted their work in parts of the imperial palace, and were even supervised by officials in imperial workshops (pg. 24). Science can even be seen as helping to create the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy, “was conditioned by the immense and early growth of hydraulic engineering works in Chinese society…the development of rivers, canals, and sluices must devolve upon the central authority” (pg. 181-182). In other words, advancements in hydraulic technology led to the need for a main body, which became the bureaucracy, to oversee water-based projects throughout …show more content…
In the West, natural laws were thought to be established by a Creator Deity for all objects of the natural world to obey. During the Renaissance, Westerners conducted investigations to find out what the laws were in order to understand the relationship of objects in the natural world (pg. 35). Natural laws to the Chinese, however, were about how human society should behave based off of a hierarchy. In China, “since natural law was never thought of as law, and took a special name, Li, it was very hard to think of it as in any way applicable outside human society” (pg. 325). Therefore, Chinese people never had a reason to investigate the laws of objects in the natural world outside of