Papers from a conference on "Understanding nature in China and Europe until the eighteenth century : a cross-cultural project," held in Rheine, Westphalia, Germany, March 22-25, 2000.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / H. Vogel and G. Dux -- Overview / Mark Elvin -- Introductions / Mark Elvin -- The Genesis Of Philosophy In The History Of Mind: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Classical Greece And China / Günter Dux -- The Universe As Cosmos: On The Ontology Of The Greek World-Image / Julián Pacho -- The Notion Of Causality In Aristotle And The Medieval Philosophy Of Nature: A Developmental Approach / Ulrich Wenzel -- Cosmology And Concepts Of Nature In Traditional China / John B. Henderson -- On Nature And Culture In Zhou China / Heiner Roetz -- Towards A Conceptual History Of Some Concepts Of Nature In Classical Chinese: Zì Rán 自 然 And Zì Rán Zhī Lĭ 自 然 之 理 / Christoph Harbsmeier -- Mathematics, Nature And Cosmological Inquiry In Traditional China / Karine Chemla -- When Shen Gua Encountered The ‘Natural World’: A Preliminary Discussion On The Mengxi Bitan And The Concept Of Nature / Fu Daiwie -- Becoming Acquainted With Nature From The Odes: Sidelights On The Study Of The Flora And Fauna In Song Dynasty’s Shijing 詩 經 (classic Of Odes) Scholarship / Achim Mittag -- Concepts Of Nature In Traditional Chinese Materia Medica And Botany (Sixteenth To Seventeenth Century) / Georges Métailié -- The Investigation Of Things (Gewu 格 物), Natural Studies (Gezhixue 格 致 學), And Evidental Studies (Kaozhengxue 考 證 學) Gewu In Late Imperial China, 1600-1800 / Benjamin A. Elman -- Personal Luck: Why Premodern China—Probably— Did Not Develop Probalistic Thinking / Mark Elvin -- \'That Which Soaks And Descends Becomes Salty\': The Concept Of Nature In Traditional Chinese Salt Production / Hans Ulrich Vogel -- The Myriad Things: Random Thoughts On Nature In China And The West / Wolfgang Kubin -- On The Relationship Between Man And Nature In China / Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer -- Index / H. Vogel and G. Dux.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

This book, inspired by the sociologist Günter Dux, co-edited by the historian Hans Ulrich Vogel, and introduced by Mark Elvin, is a collective intellectual masterpiece written by some of the world’s leading scholars. Its purpose is to illuminate premodern Chinese ways of thinking about Nature by comparing them with their counterpart traditions in Europe. In so doing it also subtly reshapes our understanding of premodern European concepts of the natural world. The domains covered principally include philosophy, language, poetry, science, and mathematics, and their relations with society, technology, and politics. By analyzing the frequent partial similarities between these great two cultural areas in the context of their overall contrasts, it points the way for the first time to defining accurately the differences that have been critical for world history.