The Orientation of Science and Technology

Book excerpt: One of the most distinguished science historians of the twentieth century, Shigeru Nakayama has been at the forefront of redirecting or ‘reorientating’ conventional East Asian science and technology, arguing, like Joseph Needham, that the ‘orientation of science’ refers not only to the direction of science but also implies a turning to Eastern science. In recent times, he has been arguing for implementation of a ‘Service Science’,which is linked to the rights and needs of mankind. A survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, he majored in astrophysics at the University of Tokyo and wrote on the history of astronomy for his PhD and later on the history of science for his Harvard PhD.