To address the dialogical dimension of Needham’s vision, the organizing committee settled on five themes. These themes drew upon the way Needham framed his SCC project into 7 volumes as shown below:

Theme 1: Historical Sociology in Dialogue - Vols. 1 & 7: Introductory Orientations and The Social Background

Theme 2: Cosmologies in Dialogue - Vol. 3: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and Earth

Theme 3: Natural Sciences in Dialogue - Vols. 4 & 5: Physics and Physical Technology & Chemistry and Chemical Technology

Theme 4: Medical Traditions in Dialogue - Vol. 6: Biology and Biological Technology

Theme 5: Modes of Inquiry in Dialogue - Vol. 2: History of Scientific Thought

These themes have largely been approached through a comparative perspective with the view to addressing Needham’s comparative question “Why did modern science develop in Europe but not in China or any other major Eurasian civilisation?” By contrast the proposed conference will focus on Needham’s dialogical question “How and why were China, and other major Asian civilisations, able to articulate knowledge that subsequently came to enrich modern science?”

The themes selected for the conference, by ranging over all the seven volume headings of Needham’s SCC, carry Needham’s project forward in two directions – advancing his dialogical vision of the growth of science, and his multi-civilizational perspective of modern science.