Group 2 Sts Mahabang Summary

POVERTIES AND TRIUMPHS OF THE CHINESE SCIENTIFIC TRADITION by Joseph Needham THE FACE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND TRADITIONAL CHINA Remarkable achievements of Chinese in mathematics: 1. Decimal metrology, along with decimal place value and blank spaces for zeros 2. Algebraic mathematical thought 3. The system of linked and pivoted rings (known now as Cardan suspension) 4. Invention of astronomical devices such as the equatorial mounting and the clock-drive Achievements of Chinese in the field of engineering (mainly mechanical) 1. Efficient harness for equine animals 2. Water-power 3. Mastery of iron-casting 4. Mechanical clockwork 5. Iron-chain suspension bridges 6. Hydraulic engineering for control of waterways for river conservation, irrigation, and tax-grain transport Chinese also showed innovation in martial technology 1. First appearance of gunpowder 2. Development of explosive devices 3. Fire-lance as a key invention (rocket composition enclosed in a bamboo tube used as a close-combat weapon) Other aspects of technology: 1. Silk 2. Mastery of textile fiber (driving belt and the chain-drive) 3. Metallurgical blowing engine 4. Development of paper 5. Block printing 6. Movable-type printing 7. Porcelain 8. Field of biology and agriculture: 9. Plant protection (biological control of insect pests) 10.Mineral remedies 11.Inoculation (or immunization) CONTRASTS BETWEEN CHINA AND THE WEST The organicist view in which every phenomenon was connected according to hierarchical order was universal among Chinese thinkers. Chinese were inclined a priori to field theories. Differences:

Chinese mathematical thought and practice was algebraic, not geometrical. 1. No Euclidean geometry spontaneously developed. 2. Euclidean geometry was probably brought to China in the Yuan (Mongol) period but did not take root until the arrival of the Jesuits'.

Chinese practice was not purely empirical. Successful erection of the great clock-tower There is the wave-particle antithesis The hesitation of the Chinese to engage in theory, especially geometrical theory, had advantages Very careful experimentation was practiced in classical Chinese culture Discovering magnetic declination Ceramics industry The fact that relatively little written material concerning these technical details were discovered came from social factors which prevented the publication of the records, kept by the higher artisans. THE SOCIAL POSITION OF SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS IN TRADITIONAL CHINA Science, both pure and applied, has a relatively “official” character 1. Astronomers are civil servants 2. Artisans and engineers also participated in this bureaucratic character The imperial workshops were situated not only at the capitals of successive dynasties but also in the most important provincial cities. In the relatively private sector, particular localities derived fame from skills which tended to concentrate at sites of natural resources The question of status is a very difficult one and still under investigation. free plebeians (shu-jen or liang-jen) slaves of semi-servile people the State relied upon an inexhaustible supply of obligatory unpaid labour in the form of the corvee (yao or kung-yu). In the Han period, every male commoner between the ages of twenty and fifty-six was liable for one month's labour service a year Practice of paying dues in lieu of personal service came about There were a certain number of artisans in the slave or semi-servile portion of the population. Five chief categories: 1.High officials (scholars who had successful and fruitful careers) 2. Commoners 3. Members of the semi-servile groups 4. Those who were actually enslaved A prominent group of minor officials(scholars who were not able to make their way upwards in the ranks of the bureaucracy) FEUDAL-BUREAUCRATIC SOCIETY

In classical Chinese society certain sciences were orthodox and others the opposite. 1. Institution of the calendar and its importance made astronomy one of the conventional sciences. 2. Mathematics was considered suitable as a pursuit for the educated scholar, and similarly physics. 3. Hydraulic engineering was regarded favourably among the traditional scholars due to need of irrigation and water conservation 4. Alchemy was distinctly unorthodox, the characteristic pursuit of disinterested Taoists and other recluses. Medicine was rather neutral. The centralized feudal-bureaucratic style of social order was favorable to the growth of applied science. The seismograph being paralleled by rain- and even snow-gauges, probably from the desire to be able to foresee coming events. Chinese society in the Middle Ages was able to mount much greater expeditions and pieces or organized scientific field work: The meridian arc surveyed early in the eighth century An expedition sent down to the East Indies for the purpose of surveying constellations in the southern Hemisphere From early times Chinese astronomy had benefited from State support but the semi-secrecy which it involved was to some extent a disadvantage. INVENTION AND LABOR-POWER Chinese labour conditions were no bar to a long series of "labour-saving" inventions. Lugging and hauling was still prevented as much as possible, despite China’s strong manpower, in contrast to Europe, where they refused to be innovative for fear of technological unemployment In Chinese history: 1. There is no event that paralleled to the slave-manned oared war galley of the Mediterranean 2. Arrival of great junks at Zanzibar of Kamchatka 3. The water-mill considered to be more humane and cheaper than manor animal-power Water-power applied to textile machinery Whereas in Europe: The refusal to build machines to move temple columns on the ground Frame knitting machine in the 17th century A.D. Shortage of labour may not in every culture be the sole stimulus for laboursaving inventions, as seen in China Philosophical and Theological Factors CONFUCIANISM in China live in happiness and harmony together within society

natural law- that way of behavior which it consorted with the actual nature of man that man should pursue. ethical behaviour involved w/ the nature of the holy, but not divine human relations and social order TAOISM in China their Tao : Order of Nature, not merely the order of human life Worked in organic way extremely interested in Nature tended to distrust reason and logic, à remain unreadable or impenetrable tended to be mystical-experimental rather than rational-systematic Western Civilization natural law -juristic sense; the laws of Nature- sense of the natural sciences earthly imperial law-givers: codes of positive law to be obeyed by men celestial and supreme rational Creator Deity: laws obeyed by minerals, crystals, plants, animals and the stars in their courses à the development of modern science at the Renaissance in the West Babylonians celestial law-giver: had its first origins for non-human natural phenomena sun-god Marduk is pictured as the law-giver to the stars Christians the conception of divine legislation over non-human nature remained Renaissance Copernicus- never used the expression "law" Kepler who did- three laws of planetary motion Agricola- first applications of the expression "law" to natural phenomena CHINESE WORLD-VIEW: harmonious co-operation of all beings they were all parts in a hierarchy of wholes forming a cosmic and organic pattern conceptions of law did not develop the idea of laws of Nature for several different reasons: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1. distaste formulated abstract codified law 2. accepted customs (mores) more suitable for Chinese society 3. never put into formal legal terms & very human ànot easy to extend to a non-human nature Supreme Being-depersonalized and lacked the idea of creativity à prevented the development of the conception of laws for non-human Linguistic Factor Science and Technology à LANGUAGE!!! the ideographic language as inhibitory

à overrated! glossaries of definable technical terms Chinese language at present àno obstacle by the scientists of the contemporary culture The Role of Merchants creamed off the best brains of the nation for more than 2000 years into the civil service. Merchants - acquire great wealth BUT never secured!!! regulating laws, be penalized of their wealth inordinate taxation governmental interference. No aura of their own. sons of even wealthy merchants every young man wanted to get into it impossible for the mercantile classes of Chinese culture to acquire anything like the positions of power and influence in the State the failure of Chinese society to develop modern science- be better begun by explaining the failure of Chinese society to develop mercantile and then industrial capitalism Renaissance, Reformation, modern science à none of them can be thought of without the rise of capitalism Chinese evolution- a relatively slowly rising curve Scientific renaissance: Galilean revolution- the curve begins to rise in almost an exponential manner, overtaking the levels of the Asian societies if parallel social and economic changes had been possible in Chinese society then some form of modern science would have arisen there. à organic rather than mechanical à gone long way before receiving the great stimulus which a knowledge of Greek science and mathematics would no doubt have provided THE OLD WORLD ORIGINS OF THE NEW SCIENCE “The application of Euclidean deductive geometry to the explanation of planetary motion in the Ptolemaic system constituted already the marrow of science.” “…all scientific developments in non-European civilizations were really nothing but technology…” NOT. Reason 1: Definitions of math are too narrow. Yes, Galileo's was right but there is deductive geometry -its proofs never exhausted the power of the mathematical art. Yes, Hindu-Arabic numerals existed BUT!!!

Chinese: express any number = just nine signs. was always arithmetical and algebraical, Han mathematicians- roots of higher powers. triangle of binomial coefficients Chinese algebraists Asian ways of computation influenced European mathematicians a great deal more mathematical influence came out of that culture than went in. Reason 2: Astronomical appplication of Euclidean Geom wasn’t all pure. Wrong resulting synthesis Western medieval world into the prison of the solid crystalline celestial spheres CHINA HAD: Modern science itself has not remained within these Cartesian bounds The knowledge of magnetic phenomena à Chinese gift to Europe assumption of a permanent, uniform, abstract order and laws of which the regular changes in the world would be explained, was a purely Greek invention. àNOT. What did they do? classify natural phenomena, develop scientific instruments observe and record and if they failed: apply hypotheses experimented century after century obtaining results which they could repeat at will Reason 4: When in comes to apparatus seismograph and the mechanical clock Reason 5: Degree of Accuracy astronomical lists- stellar positions hydraulic engineers- recording precisely the silt-content of rivers Pharmacists- systems of dosages dial-and-pointer readings needles of the magnetic compasses by geomancers and sea-captains. We should know that: Greeks were not really experimenters medieval Chinese either, but they came just as near it theoretically, and in practice often went beyond European achievements More from the Chinese: Tu Wan: fossil brachiopods pharmaceutical experiments on animals by the alchemists acoustics experts trials on the resonance of bells and strings

systematic strength-of-material tests water-wheel linkwork escapement clocks the textile machinery Remember!!! modern and natural science IS GREATER than Euclidean geometry and Ptolemaic math 2. Galilean break-through does not constitute the whole of science 3. Men of the Asian cultures also helped to lay the foundations of mathematics and all the sciences in their medieval forms END. PRE-COLONIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE THIRD WORLD physical reality Physical reality has existed in several other areas of the world throughout history, not only in the classical civilizations of China, South Asian and the Middle East (and later of medieval Europe) but also in smaller social entities - even those at a tribal level. 'No single, "scientific" trait can be shown to be a distinctive Western trait, confined only to modern Western thought, nor does it obtain unqualifiedly throughout modern Western countries.' (Yehuda 1977). Science ... The search for explanations of physical reality', meaning, in the case of the physical sciences, explanations of the reality which is out there', manipulable by hand or by instruments, and separate from the mind. Science... In the case of the social sciences, the fact that the human observer intrudes upon and thus disturbs the field of his observations has long been recognized. Economy  Irrigated Agriculture  wheat and barley ; bananas, melons and peas  Cultivated cotton Religion Siva Worship Goddess worship Architecture  Well developed  Building laid out systematically  Modern drainage system Bronze Technology Mohenjodaro and Harappa Citadel Town planning Shows high degree of uniformity

Modern sewerage system Bathing places Pottery Wheel turned pottery with a standard size also indicates an ability to manufacture according to specification. Sculpture Accessories Education -ability to perform simple arithmetical calculations necessary for the maintenance of the extensive commercial link of the area.

Culture Yoga type religious practices Siva-like gods Trivanka sculpture

Vedic Period 15th century BC Next phase of the South Asian cultural and intellectual search. Aryans- essentially nomadic barbarians Horse and chariots Vedas Nak Shatra system- Based on lunar months which contrasted with Babylonian Zodiac which was solar Meruprastara- A pyramidal expansion of the number of combination of two, etc. syllables formed of short and long sounds. Ayurveda -There is a systematic knowledge of plants and animals with a developed system of classification.

Philosophy There is an intense curiosity about ultimate fate of mankind. Wandering scholars of Medieval Europe gathered in bands and engaged in intense discussion and debate, expressing sometimes radically differing views 62 heretical thought system It indicates the variety of philosophical and intellectual views of the period. Charvakas -materialism - direct perception is the true means of knowledge. -do not believe in karma and do not perform rituals Upanishads Description of nature Pancha bhutas 5 elements prthvi, ap, tejas, vayu and akasa (earth, water, heat, air and 'emptiness' respectively) provide a paradigmatic background, as it were, for the systematic interpretation of the material world.

The belief underpins the Aristotelian view of physical world. Also explains Ayurveda Ayurvedic Surgery Susruta dividing surgery into incision, excision, scarification, puncturing, exploration, extraction, evacuation and suturing. Surgery included treatment of cataracts, laparotomy, lithotomy and plastic operations (ibid.). the Charaka Sanhitha alone is three times the size of the entire surviving medical literature of ancient Greece (Chattopadhyaya 1977 p. 20). Atharvaveda (8th Century BC) describes the use of gold to preserve life Thus mathematicians and astronomers such as Aryabhata I, Bhaskara I, Brahmagupta, Mahavira, Aryabhata II, Munjala, Sripati, Sridhara and Bhaskara II compiled well-known technical texts. Aryabhata I, knew how to calculate square and cube roots, and knew the properties of triangles, circles, spheres, arithmetical progression, summation of series and the rule for solving indeterminate equations of the first order. He gave a value for correct to four decimal places and knew the values of 24 sines. Bhaskara I was aware of the solutions to indeterminate equations of the first degree and provided precise rules for the calculation of the area of a cyclic quadrilateral, the volume of a prism and the length of the two diagonals of a cyclic quadrilateral. He also dealt with indeterminate equations of the second degree. Bhaskara came very close to evolving a differential system of calculus Astronomy developed from the ancient ideas of cosmology, such as the mahayuga concept and gave rise to several important texts, the Siddhantas The first major astronomer Aryabhata I developed a theory of the rotation of the earth and of epicycles while Brahmagupta refuted Aryabhata's theories on the rotation of the earth. Bhaskara II further developed theories about the evolution of planets by epicyclic-eccentric motions -- South Asian atomic theories, however, have had a continuous, unbroken tradition, the Vaisesika atomic system, for example, continuing until the 18th Century South Asia Acoustics Phonetic tradition Recitation of religious texts (the correct way) Panini’s linguistic analysis Octave = 22 quartertones Overtones = responsible for differences in timbre For the western people: appearance in 14th century. Buddhadasa of Sri Lanka Subarayappa --Early enquiries into the nature of physical reality

Motion Vaisesikas: impetus theory

Bodies = javelins, arrows

Medical texts Pathology of plants and animals Documented instances of routine surgical operations on animals

Logic and epistemology Developed because of the deep interest in philo and debate. Nyaya sutras and Buddhists and Jains = basic texts on logic Pramana = means to reliable knowledge False arguments was known (reduction, ad absurdum, circular argument, infinite regression) Indian logic > Greek tradition (in terms of categories and concepts) Epistemological relativity (Jain logic) There was no break in the continuation of the sciences (unlike the European middle ages)

Arab-Persian tradition

= Greek science and technology + South Asian

knowledge 16th century: Shirazi invented a wagon mill, a machine for cleaning gun barrels, a portable cannon, a 17-band cannon, and a travelling bath. (this is also in the time of the Renaissance)

Rahman (1975) Bibliography of Indian works from the 8th to the 19th centuries Vigorous and continuous growth in science throughout the medieval period. 10,000 source materials Major developments were in astronomy, medicine, chemistry, and math. 18th century, western science and tech begun to take a strong hold on South Asia Due to western dynamism Fast growth Increasing plausibility of its system for explaining the physical world The advent of western colonial incursion (more of south asia getting weaker) Americas Distinct regional flavour Incas • Terraced agriculture • Extensive system of roads (with rest houses) • Equal arm balance • Mortarless masonry • Plumb bob • Metal working • Construction and management of large-scale irrigation systems • System of measures and weights ( land measurement was required for taxes) • Mayas

• • • • •

Astronomy and math Positional system The zero Calendars (calculation of the solar year) Knowledge in non-EU world

Physical means: may be manipulated by means Mental maps and knowledge systems: phenomena outside the realm of the immediately manipulable. Nature and structure of the moon Nature of light Nature of the earth below one’s feet Thunder and lightning The uncontrollable is not left as a gap in man’s mental map: its nature is constructed and fitted into man’s mind, and given a dynamic form Metaphors formed by early man = metaphors modern scientists use. Explanation of the maximum of phenomena by the minimum postulates The Rigveda Sanhitha Water = all the rest being derived from water

Five elements (pancha bhutas) (There are other variations to it) Prthvi: earth: nails, bones, teeth, flesh Ap: water: blood, fat, mucus, sweat Tajas: fire: bile, heat, and lustre, color Vayu: air: movement Akasa: ether (non material ubiquitous substance): sound Five forms of matter exist in everything in the world, because of their mutual interrelation, because of their mutual interdependence and because of their interpenetration (Chattopadhyaya, 1976) Akasa (pancha bhutas concept) Occupies non-material place. Together with space and time. All materials have direct contact with it Has the five qualities of number, dimension, distinctness, conjunction, and disjunction (also possessed by space and time) Space (Nyaya Vaisesika) Fundamental base for the designation of different notions of directions (east, west, north, south) All-pervasive, indestructible, and unitary. Presence of space: why we are occupying separate positions. Not a simple container, objective reality with specific qualities. Nearness Remoteness

Time (Nyaya Vaisesika) Root cause in the creation, persistence, and destruction of material bodies Places events in a chronological order. Considered in terms of its action Jains: time=non-conscious, lacking tangible form, without motion, and eternal Empirical reality (past present future) in reference to given events which bring change Relative time Time is not unitary and all-pervading. Time = specific human experience. Buddhists: time = not objective reality Heat (Nyaya Vaisesika) In terms of fire: in rapid movement and causes change within the atomic level. Another view: fire penetrates the system so much that it sets into motion the earth atoms. Sight Fire: qualities such as color and touch. Sound Akasa (Nyaya Vaisesika) Production of sound = production of sequence of water ripples First sound -> causes second sound -> first sound is destroyed Jains Not an attribute of akasa, but a modification of matter. Atoms impinge on one another producing sound.

Mechanical Engineering In the Medieval Near East By Donald R. Hill Mechanical Engineering- A discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing and maintenance of mechanical systems This is medieval. This is near east. It started because of Prophet Mohammed *Muslims had to improvise and innovate *Shaduf- like a pale of water ( water storage and transfer) *Noria- Big wheels for water transfer *Saqiya-( yung may baka.) *spiral-scoop- may baka din sya, set of wheels and improvised machine na pinapaandar ng force ng animal wheel *Ibn Al-Razzaz al-Jazari—Father of robotics *Men have will power

*Medieval Muslims have mill power *grindmills became a necessity, as well as windmills *Banu of Musa: “The book of Ingenious Devices” “This should not in any way be allowed to devalue the achievements of the Muslim engineers, known and anonymous. Nor should we overemphasize the relevance of the Islamic inventions to the development of modern machinery. Of equal or greater importance is the contribution they made to the material wealth, and hence the cultural riches, of the medieval Near East.” END.