The History of Science in a World of Readers Edition Open Access
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The History of Science in a World of Readers Edition Open Access Series Editors Ian T. Baldwin, Gerd Graßhoff, Jürgen Renn, Dagmar Schäfer, Robert Schlögl, Bernard F. Schutz Edition Open Access Development Team Lindy Divarci, Samuel Gfrörer, Klaus Thoden, Malte Vogl The Edition Open Access (EOA) platform was founded to bring together publication ini- tiatives seeking to disseminate the results of scholarly work in a format that combines tra- ditional publications with the digital medium. It currently hosts the open-access publica- tions of the “Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge” (MPRL) and “Edition Open Sources” (EOS). EOA is open to host other open access initia- tives similar in conception and spirit, in accordance with the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the sciences and humanities, which was launched by the Max Planck Society in 2003. By combining the advantages of traditional publications and the digital medium, the platform offers a new way of publishing research and of studying historical topics or current issues in relation to primary materials that are otherwise not easily available. The volumes are available both as printed books and as online open access publications. They are directed at scholars and students of various disciplines, as well as at a broader public interested in how science shapes our world. The History of Science in a World of Readers Dagmar Schäfer and Angela N. H. Creager (eds.) Studies 11 Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge Studies 11 Cover Image: Details from the cover of 读者世界的科学史:国际交流的参考文献框架 (The History of Science in a World of Readers), reproduced with the kind permission of Qizhen Guan, Zhejiang University. ISBN 978-3-945561-42-3 e-ISBN [PDF] 978-3-945561-43-0 e-ISBN [EPUB] 978-3-945561-44-7 First published 2019 by Edition Open Access, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science http://www.edition-open-access.de Published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/de/deed.en The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge The Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge comprises the sub- series, Studies, Proceedings and Textbooks. They present original scientific work submitted under the scholarly responsibility of members of the Scientific Board and their academic peers. The initiative is currently supported by research departments of three Max Planck Institutes: the MPI for the History of Science, the Fritz Haber Institute of the MPG and the MPI for Gravitational Physics (Albert Ein- stein Institute). The publications of the Studies series are dedicated to key subjects in the history and development of knowledge, bringing together perspectives from different fields and combining source- based empirical research with theoretically guided approaches. The Proceedings series presents the results of scientific meetings on current issues and supports, at the same time, further cooperation on these issues by offering an electronic platform with further resources and the possibility for comments and interactions. Scientific Board Markus Antonietti, Antonio Becchi, Fabio Bevilacqua, William G. Boltz, Jens Braarvik, Horst Bredekamp, Jed Z. Buchwald, Olivier Darrigol, Thomas Duve, Mike Edmunds, Fynn Ole Engler, Robert K. Englund, Mordechai Feingold, Rivka Feldhay, Gideon Freudenthal, Paolo Galluzzi, Kostas Gavroglu, Mark Geller, Domenico Giulini, Günther Görz, Gerd Graßhoff, James Hough, Manfred Laubichler, Glenn Most, Klaus Müllen, Pier Daniele Napoli- tani, Alessandro Nova, Hermann Parzinger, Dan Potts, Sabine Schmidtke, Circe Silva da Silva, Ana Simões, Dieter Stein, Richard Stephenson, Mark Stitt, Noel M. Swerdlow, Liba Taub, Martin Vingron, Scott Walter, Norton Wise, Gerhard Wolf, Rüdiger Wolfrum, Gereon Wolters, Zhang Baichun. Contents List of Contributors ................................................... 3 History of Science in a World of Readers: Frames of References for Global Exchange Dagmar Schäfer and Angela N. H. Creager ............................... 5 1 The Openness of Knowledge: An Ideal and Its Context in 16th-Century Writings on Mining and Metallurgy Pamela O. Long ........................................................ 19 2 Political Designs: Nuclear Reactors and National Policy in Postwar France Gabriele Hecht ......................................................... 49 3 Technics and Civilization in Late Imperial China: An Essay in the Cultural History of Technology Francesca Bray ........................................................ 73 4 Deuteronomic Texts: Late Antiquity and the History of Mathematics Reviel Netz............................................................. 95 5 The Possession of Kuru: Medical Science and Biocolonial Exchange Warwick Anderson ...................................................... 115 6 Knowledge in Transit James A. Secord ........................................................ 143 7 Peasant Friendly Plant Breeding and the Early Years of the Green Revolution in Mexico Jonathan Harwood ..................................................... 165 List of Contributors Warwick Anderson Professor of History Department of History, University of Sydney Francesca Bray Professor Emerita of Social Anthropology University of Edinburgh Jonathan Harwood Emeritus Professor of the History of Science and Technology University of Manchester Gabriele Hecht Professor of History Department of History, Stanford University Pamela O. Long Independent historian of Late Medieval and Renaissance History and the History of Science and Technology Reviel Netz Professor of Classics (and by courtesy Philosophy, History) Suppes Professorship in Greek Mathematics and Astronomy, Department of Classics, Stanford University James A. Secord Professor of History and Philosophy of Science Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge History of Science in a World of Readers: Frames of References for Global Exchange Dagmar Schäfer and Angela N. H. Creager The idea for this collection was born on a foggy day in March 2015 during a scholarly retreat on the outskirts of Berlin. A photo of a reader sitting in a crowded bookshop in Shanghai, China, holding the 1990 Chinese translation of Joseph Needham’s introductory volume, Science and Civilisation,1 elicited a lively debate about the purpose, themes, and reception of translations in the globalizing discipline of the history of science, technology and medicine.2 What role should historians of science have in communicating their own body of literature—its methods and concerns—across linguistic boundaries? This anthology, published in both English and Chinese, is an initial response to that de- bate, reflecting a wish to counteract and complement both market-driven and individual ef- forts with a collective reflection on some of the influential literature in this field published in English since 1990. The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin, and the History of Science Society (HSS) organized a selection committee including repre- sentatives from six other societies—the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM), the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS), the Division of the History of Science and Technology of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (DHST/IUHPST), the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), and the Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM). Twelve chapters were selected for translation into Chinese based on an online poll that ran between October and December 2015. This version features seven chap- ters in their original form, as the other five were unavailable for publication due to copyright restrictions.3 The selection committee reviewed, evaluated, and ranked an initial shortlist of 78 arti- cles before deciding on the final list. Given how geographically dispersed English-language historians of science are, this arrangement enabled the committee to use current global tech- nologies to crowd-source candidate publications while ensuring an appropriate balance of articles on science, technology, and medicine over a range of time periods and regions, as well as a diverse group of authors. We believe that translations—in the linguistic sense of the word—serve an important function as a scholarly practice in internationally competitive research, which is character- ized by an increasing number of diverse, multilingual actors on the one hand, and an increas- ing tendency towards a hegemonic linguistic approach on the other.4 Literary translations, in contrast to collaborative monolingual publications (often produced by authors from varied 1Needham ([1954] 1990). 2If not otherwise indicated, history of science is hereinafter used to include history of technology and history of medicine. 3Rosenberg (1992); Kohler (1999); Blair (2003); Galison (2003); Green (2008). 4Gordin (2015, 219). See also the statistics of the European Union on translation activities (https://www.ceatl.eu/ current-situation/translation-statistics). 6 History of Science in a World of Readers language backgrounds), make explicit their negotiations over content, format,