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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Area / regional studies
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Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics - Mathematics, History and Politics in the Work of Wu Wen-Tsun (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,617
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Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics - Mathematics, History and Politics in the Work of Wu Wen-Tsun (Paperback)
Series: Needham Research Institute Series
Expected to ship within 12 - 19 working days
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Twentieth-century China has been caught between a desire to
increase its wealth and power in line with other advanced nations,
which, by implication, means copying their institutions, practices
and values, whilst simultaneously seeking to preserve China's
independence and historically formed identity. Over time, Chinese
philosophers, writers, artists and politicians have all sought to
reconcile these goals and this book shows how this search for a
Chinese way penetrated even the most central, least contested area
of modernity: science. Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics is a
study of the life of one of modern China's most admired scientific
figures, the mathematician Wu Wen-Tsun. Negotiating the conflict
between progress and tradition, he found a path that not only
ensured his political and personal survival, but which also brought
him renown as a mathematician of international status who claimed
that he stood outside the dominant western tradition of
mathematics. Wu Wen-Tsun's story highlights crucial developments
and contradictions in twentieth -century China, the significance of
which extends far beyond the field of mathematics. On one hand lies
the appeal of radical scientific modernity, "mechanisation" in all
its forms, and competitiveness within the international scientific
community. On the other is an anxiety to preserve national
traditions and make them part of the modernisation project.
Moreover, Wu's intellectual development also reflects the complex
relationship between science and Maoist ideology, because his turn
to history was powered by his internalisation of certain aspects of
Maoist ideology, including its utilitarian philosophy of science.
This book traces how Wu managed to combine political success and
international scientific eminence, a story that has wider
implications for a new century of increasing Chinese activity in
the sciences. As such, it will be of great interest to students and
scholars of Chinese history, the history of science and the history
and philosophy of mathematics.
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