| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, April 24, 2009 | 3:00PM - 5:00PM | Seminar Room 108N, Munk Centre For International Studies 1 Devonshire Place |
The talk will focus on the Japanese term for science, kagaku, and why it began to be increasingly used as the Chinese term for science after the 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War, when most scholars began to argue that China had never developed any science of its own. Earlier aspects of Chinese interests in natural studies were forgotten, not to be revived until the 1950s by Joseph Needham as part of his “Science & Civilisation in China” project.
Benjamin Elman is Professor of East Asian Studies and History with his primary department in East Asian Studies. Currently he is also Director of the Princeton Program in East Asian Studies. His teaching and research fields include: 1) Chinese intellectual and cultural history, 1000-1900; 2) history of science in China, 1600-1930; 3) history of education in late imperial China; 4) Sino-Japanese cultural history, 1600-1850. His publications include: From Philosophy to Philology (1984, 1990, Chinese edition 1995, revised 2nd edition 2001, Korean edition 2004); Classicism, Politics, and Kinship (1990, Chinese edition 1998); A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (2000). He recently completed two projects: A Cultural History of Modern Science in China (2006); and On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550-1900 (2005), both published by Harvard University Press.
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