Adversaries and Authorities
Did science and philosophy develop differently in ancient Greece and ancient China? If so, can we say why? This book consists of a series of detailed studies of cosmology, natural philosophy, mathematics and medicine that suggest the answer to the first question is yes. To answer the second, the author relates the science produced in each ancient civilization first to the values of the society in question and then to the institutions within which the scientists and philosophers worked.
- The author is one of the very few able to read the ancient Greek and Chinese sources in the original and produce this comparative study
- This analysis goes beyond the researches of Joseph Needham by building on his work and employing a more sophisticated methodology
- A completely original book that will be read by students of Chinese society as well as by classicists
Reviews & endorsements
"...another valuable book from Lloyd..." Roger French, Isis
"This book will be of great value to cultural and religious historians as well as to scholars of Greek and Chinese cosmology." Linda L. Lam-Easton, Religious Studies Review
Product details
July 1996Paperback
9780521556958
276 pages
228 × 154 × 15 mm
0.39kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Comparative studies and their problems: methodological preliminaries
- 2. Adversaries and authorities
- 3. Methodology, epistemology and their uses
- 4. The techniques of persuasion
- 5. Causes and correlations
- 6. Greek and Chinese dichotomies revisited
- 7. Finite and infinite in Greece and China
- 8. Heavenly harmonies
- 9. The politics of the body
- 10. Science in antiquity: the Greek and Chinese cases and their relevance to the problems of culture and cognition
- Glossary of Chinese and Greek terms
- Bibliography
- Index.