ģ So, Needham’s “Grand Question” is to be coupled with the question: What was the actual innovation of Galileo, that had changed science so much, accelerated its progress a hundredfold, though only in the West? Hence, hereafter the term “ modern science” means “ modern physics”.
the birth of the experimental-mathematical method, which appeared in almost perfect form in Galileo, led to all the developments of modern science and technology. Why did modern science, the mathematization of hypotheses about Nature, with all its implications for advanced technology, take its meteoric rise only in the West at the time of Galileo? Why modern science had not developed in Chinese civilization was much more efficient than occidental in applying human natural knowledge to practical human needs? Ģ Evidently he had in mind physics, since in his view 1 Introductionġ The strongest question on Galileo’s role in history was put by the British biochemist and sinologist Joseph Needham:
I am grateful to Robert S. Cohen for many years of enlightening, Lanfranco Belloni for help with Galileo’s Italian, Chia-Hsiung Tze for introduction to the Needham question, Freeman Dyson, Toby E. Huff, Silvan S. Schweber, and Sergey Zelensky for discussions.
