Wen-Hua Kuo
University of Toronto
TBA
This talk revisits Joseph Needham (1900–1995), a key figure who shaped a generation of East Asian scholars whose intellectual trajectories began in the history and philosophy of science and later extended into science and technology studies (STS). A renowned biochemist in the early twentieth century, Needham devoted nearly five decades of his later career to the study of Chinese science and technology. Through close readings of Needham’s writings and archival research on medicine, this talk offers a critical STS reassessment of this towering figure, focusing in particular on how Chinese medicine was represented in Science and Civilisation in China, the monumental intellectual enterprise he initiated. I argue that Needham’s legacy is multilayered. It must be understood not only in the context of Cold War science diplomacy, but also through his distinctive approach to Asian medicines—an approach that was, in important respects, shared by historians and medical scholars of his generation. Bringing these dimensions together allows us to reconsider Needham’s vision of the future of medicine. For Needham, understanding medicine’s past was not merely an exercise in historical reconstruction, but an indispensable resource for imagining its future.
The two pre-circulated papers to be discussed are both published pieces. They are:
- Florence Hsa and Dagmar Schäfer, "History of science, technology, and medicine: A second look at Joseph Needham," Isis, 110:1 (2019), 94-99.
- Wen-Hua Kuo, "An ecumenical medicine yet to come: Reflection on Needham on medicine," Isis, 110:1 (2019), 116-121.
