Book Review: Science and Civilisation in China
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205501000218 |
| Date | 01 June 1955 |
| Published date | 01 June 1955 |
| Author | W. A. C. H. Dobson |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
145
as
too
inflexible
especially
with
respect
to
exchange
rates,
and
would
prefer
a
system
which
allowed
more room
for
experimenta-
tion
in
determining
new
rates.
By
1953,
Harrod
argues,
the
dollar
shortage
was
no
longer
due
to
excessive
spending
in
Europe
but
reflected
the
long
run structural
changes
that
cannot
be
easily
solved.
He places
particular
stress
on
the
decline
in
the
real
value
of
gold
as
one
cause
of
the
continued
dollar
short-
age.
To
solve
the
shortage may
require
increased
discrimina-
tion
against
the
dollar
as
a
prerequisite
to
the
restoration
of
convertible
currencies
for
Europe
and
other
countries.
University
of
Manitoba
CLARENCE
L.
BARBER
SCIENCE
AND CIVILISATION
IN
CHINA.
By
Joseph
Needham.
1954.
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press;
Toronto:
Macmillan. xvii,
318pp.
52/6d.
$10.00)
The
very
boldness,
one
might
almost say
audacity, of
Dr.
Needham's
conclusions,
to
say
nothing
of
the
astonishing
range
and
scope
of
his
researches,
will
ensure,
and
properly,
that
this
will
be
a much
discussed
book.
He
claims,
after
extensive
per-
sonal
researches
and
with
the
assistance
of
some
of
China's
best
scientists,
that
"between
the
3rd
and
13th
Centuries,
the
Chinese
had
a
level
of
scientific knowledge
unapproached
in
the
West,
and
technological
discoveries
and
inventions, often
far
in advance
of
contemporary
Europe,
especially
up
to
the
15th
Century."
We
will
not
know
how
this
claim
is
supported
until
Dr.
Needham
reaches
the
seventh
and
final
volume
of
his
work.
So
far
only
the
first
volume
has
appeared,
concerned
with
what
the
author
calls
"orientations." In
it,
Dr.
Needham
sketches
the
back-
ground
which
he feels
his
readers
will
need
to
follow
the
story
of
the
progress
of
science
in
China,
as
it
unfolds
in
the
forth-
coming volumes.
The
Western
world
has
accepted
with
composure
the
belated
claims
of
Chinese
civilisation
to achievement in
literature
and
the
fine
arts.
The
suggestion
now
that
China
for
long
out-
stripped
the
West
in
science
and
technology,
regions in which
we
felt
assured
of
superiority,
can
hardly
be
received
so
blandly.
Our
ignorance
of
Asian civilisations,
despite
their
astonishing
renaissance
which
we
are
presently
witnessing,
and
our
present
preoccupation
with
contemporary
and
half-understood
political
facets
of
Asian
life,
may
prove
a
costly
luxury,
and
one
which,
in
the
realm
of
foreign
affairs
in
particular,
we
can
ill
afford.
Toronto
W.
A.
C.
H.
DOBSoN
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