• Keynote speech at the International Conference on Chinese History of Science and Its Interaction with other Civilizations, November 10, 2010
  • Update Time: 2014-02-26
There was a keynote speech made by Liu Dun, the researcher of the Institute for the History of Natural Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the International Conference on Chinese History of Science and Its Interaction with other Civilizations, On November 10, 2010. The topic of his report was that the Significance of the “Needham Question” in the Contemporary World. The “Needham Question” could be summarized as that: why did modern science, especially the mathematization of hypotheses about Nature, with all of its implications for advanced technology, develop only in the West at the time of Galileo, rather than in ancient and medieval China? It has been a subject of great interest to historians generally, and its significance goes well beyond the subject of science in China. Liu Dun’s speech focused on the origins and subsequent developments of the question, and its significance in the contemporary world.