Science and Civilization in China

In this second volume of Professor Needham's proposed eight-volume treatise on Chinese science and civilization, he describes in extensive and loving detail the philosophical background against which the specific sciences in China developed. In the first part, Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and Legalism are analyzed with special attention being paid to the implications of these philosophies for what can best be described as an attitude towards nature. It is this attitude towards nature which Professor Needham sees as a basic element which tends to determine the vitality of science in any culture. After revealing the basic philosophical systems, Professor Needham turns to the more specifically scientific questions of definition of elements, cosmological and cosmogonical speculation, concepts of natural law, matter and energy, tracing the evolution of these concepts, not only as self-contained ideas whose changing properties follow certain logical principles, but also as reflections of the evolution and development of Chinese society itself. The volume is completed by an extensive bibliography and index, and the whole beautifully bound and printed by the Cambridge University Press. There is little that one can say in the presence of such a magisterial volume. Professor Needham has obvious command of his sources and weaves them together into a coherent, logical, and literate whole. His sense of historical reality is acute; his analysis of philosophical systems is keen and the ability with which he reveals the interconnections of Chinese philosophical and scientific thought is admirable. This is, in short, a volume which every student of the development of man will treasure. Furthermore, it makes one even more impatient for the appearance of the succeeding volumes of this great work.