Rethinking the Needham Question A Non-Eurocentric Framework Transcending Dialogism

This book offers a new investigation of the Needham Question. Why did modern science emerge in Europe, but not in any of the advanced non-European civilizations? Eurocentric accounts attribute it to certain ‘qualities’ said to be ‘unique’ to Europe. Opposed to the Eurocentric view is a position known as the ‘dialogical perspective’. Dialogism argues that Europe borrowed heavily from non-European scientific knowledges, and that scientific exchanges were key to the development of modern science. Neo-Eurocentric arguments have emerged in response to the challenge of dialogism, and the debate between Eurocentrism/neo-Eurocentrism and dialogism currently stands at a stalemate.

In this book, Raymond Lau brings a new theoretical-methodological framework to finally settle this debate. The historical analysis developed here shows that to secure the non-Eurocentric case, and decisively rebut Eurocentrism and neo-Eurocentrism, it is necessary to go beyond dialogism both theoretically and methodologically.  

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The Needham Question, dialogism versus Eurocentrism and neo-Eurocentrism, and the need to transcend dialogism.- Chapter 3: Analyzing intellectual development on a non-essentialist basis: A theoretical-methodological framework.- Chapter 4: Greece and the Needham Question.- Chapter 5: Social essentialism and sociological reductionism concerning Greece in comparison to China.- Chapter 6: The issue of evidence of knowledge transmission across different civilizations.- Chapter 7: Alleged ‘cultural obstacles’ to knowledge transmission and Huff’s ‘intellectual curiosity’ argument.- Chapter 8: Late-Renaissance scholar agency and the breakthrough into modern science.- Chapter 9: Cultural essentialism and Cohen’s Eurocentric-cum-neo-Eurocentric argument concerning the breakthrough into modern science.- Chapter 10: Conclusion.- Chapter 11: Appendix – Deconstructing cultural essentialism at root: The ‘maritime vs continental civilizations’ narrative.

Raymond W.K. Lau, PhD, was Professor of Sociology at the Hong Kong Metropolitan University until retirement in 2017; he is currently Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Hong Kong Shue Yan University. He has published primary research on the philosophies of Xunzi, Laozi, and Zhuangzi. In Intellectual Developments in Greece and China: Contingency, Institutionalization and Path Dependency (2020), he formulated a theoretical-methodological framework for analyzing intellectual development on a non-essentialist basis, which also underpins the present work. His research into the Needham Question is an extension from that previous work. He is a co-editor and contributor to the volume titled Multicultural Exchanges in the Making of Modern Science: Needham’s Dialogical Vision (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).