Number 016
Wen Hua Kuo, “From ‘Needham’s Question’ to the Conundrum of Medicine in Ancient China: An Interdisciplinary Journey with Joseph Needham”

【Date and Time】22 July 2025 (Tuesday) 10:30-12:00
【LANGUAGE】English (no interpretation)
【HOW TO PARTICIPATE】
IN-PERSON: Room 315, Faculty of Law and Literature Building No.1, The University of Tokyo
ONLINE ZOOM: ID: 829 280 0028
Passcode: 854145

Host: Department of Death & Life Studies and Practical Ethics
Grant : Fuse Academic Grant
Joint Host: Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology and Tokyo College

＊This event is part of both "Death & Life Studies and Practical Ethics Lecture Series"

【Speaker】
Wen Hua Kuo(National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan )

【Abstract】
　　Witnessing the emergence of East Asian STS and the growing prominence of East Asia in the global STS landscape, this talk reflects on my academic journey from the history and philosophy of science to science and technology studies (STS), guided in part by the iconic figure of Joseph Needham (1900–1995)—a renowned biochemist who dedicated his later career to understanding Chinese science and technology. Through close readings of Needham’s work and archival studies on medicine, the talk offers an assessment, with critical eyes of STS, of this towering figure and examines how Chinese medicine was represented in Science and Civilisation in China, the intellectual enterprise he founded. I argue that Needham’s STS legacy is multilayered: it must be understood not only in the context of Cold War-era science diplomacy, but also in light of his distinctive approach to Asian medicines—an approach shared by many of his historian and medical peers. Only by grappling with these dimensions can we begin to appreciate Needham’s vision of medicine’s future, one in which, following a Kuhnian perspective, understanding the past is both essential and indispensable.