Needham, Anglo-French Civilities and Ecumenical Science

Patrick Petitjean (1)

1 REHSEIS (UMR_7596) - Recherches Epistémologiques et Historiques sur les Sciences Exactes et les Institutions Scientifiques

Which intellectual and institutional trajectory lead Needham to his international commitment? To elucidate some aspects of this question, the paper is mainly focalised upon Needham's specificity among what Gary Werskey called "the visible college", this group of leading British scientists who dedicated themselves to science and socialism; and, more particularly, about Needham's institutional commitment in Unesco. The paper tries to understand the manifold connections which existed between the "visible college" and the French scientists with whom Needham and his friends shared many commitments. Needham's worldview – which resulted in his anti-Euro-centrism - also deserved a specific analysis for itself, and not as a mere variant of Bernalism.
The paper presents the part played by Needham among the Anglo-French networks, and studies what Needham brought in for the pots-war international scientific relations.

Mots clés: Needham; Unesco; Anglo-French scientific relations; scientific internationalism; Marxism; Bernalism; Euro-centrism

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Patrick Petitjean. Needham, Anglo-French Civilities and Ecumenical Science. S. Irfan Habib & Dhruv Raina. Situating the History of Science. Dialogues with Joseph Needham, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp.152-197, 1999. ⟨halshs-00116955⟩