• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.520-529
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• 2013

Needham Problem(NP) is the influential question that English historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham raised, "Why modern science had not developed in the Chinese civilisation but only in that of Europe?" Our objectives in this paper are as follows: First, we will revisit NP in the broad context of the emergence of modernity rather than treating it just as an internal problem of Chinese science. After that, the problem of modernity in Chinese medicine will be discussed from the viewpoint of NP. After NP's intellectual backgrounds are summarized, its value and implications are examined, and then Needham's own answers are presented. Afterwards, we present supplementary hypotheses, adapted from Weber, as our solution to NP in Chinese science and medicine. Needham thought that the European scientific revolution would not have been possible without the rise of modern capitalism. He also believed that Chinese bureaucratism facilitated early development of Chinese science and in turn, inhibited later radical change by interrupting the rise of capitalism. According to our hypotheses, scientific changes are related to social changes, especially to the legitimation crises, which lead to the alternations of mode of justification in sciences. The Chinese society did not go through the legitimation crises as the European society did, and therefore it failed to produce a radically different kind of justification from the traditional one. This is the reason why there was no revolution in science and medicine in China.

• CELLMED
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.9.1-9.14
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• 2015

The so-called "Needham's Grand Question" (NGQ) can be formulated as why modern science was developed in Europe despite the earlier successes of science and technology in ancient China. Numerous answers have been proposed. In this review, it will be pointed out that traditional Chinese natural philosophy (TCNP) and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are in fact dealing with problems of highly complex dynamical systems of Nature and human beings. Due to the lack of mathematical machinery in dealing with such complex phenomena, a holistic approach was taken by ancient Chinese instead. It was very successful for the first eighteen centuries. In the recent three centuries, however, the reductionist and mechanistic viewpoints of Western natural philosophy, sciences, and medicine have been prevalent all over the world up to now. The main obstacle in preventing the advancement of TCM, TCNP and its sciences is actually the lacking of proper mathematical tools in dealing with complex dynamical systems. Fortunately, the tools are now available and a "chaotic wave theory of fractal continuum" has been proposed recently. To give the theory an operational meaning, three basic laws of TCNP are outlined. These three laws of wave/field interactions contrast readily with those of Newton's particle collisions. Via the proposed three laws, TCM, TCNP and its sciences can be unified under the same principles. Finally, an answer to NGQ can be accurately given. It is hoped that this review will help promoting a genuine understanding of natural philosophy, sciences, and medicine in an ecumenical way.