In the field of history, what other problems are there besides Needham's problem?

The question about the decline of ancient science in China, the emergence of modern science in the West and the resulting scientific and technological revolution was first raised by Dr. Needham, but there is no satisfactory answer so far, which is called Needham puzzle. Here, I can only talk about my own simple views.

To ask why, we must first define the problem. First, what is modern science? What are its characteristics? What kind of environment does it need?

Some people divide science into two categories: one is based on modern science, especially physics, and from the internal structure of science, it is emphasized that science is a strict theoretical system about nature composed of concepts, theorems and laws; Secondly, from people's understanding and practice of nature, science is considered as "a special kind of thought and behavior" and "the application of rational thinking in the purpose of experience", and it is considered that "in different historical periods, people have different ways and degrees to realize this kind of thought and behavior", that is, science has different forms in different historical periods.

Of these two understandings, obviously the second one is more in line with our current understanding of science. But in this discussion, we are going to discuss the first kind, the so-called modern science.

Modern science is mainly natural science. The main feature of natural science is to describe the laws of nature abstractly with mathematics, and at the same time, to create appropriate abstract mathematics in front of nature. So whether our description is accurate or not, we all adopt experimental methods. Therefore, most natural sciences belong to experimental science.

To discuss the Needham issue, we must compare the civilization tradition of China with that of the West, and this comparison should be multifaceted. Some people only compare the eastern and western ways of thinking, which is obviously too one-sided and simple. In the final analysis, although science has a lot to do with people's way of thinking, it is inseparable from the constraints of geography, history, economy and politics to form scientific culture and belong to it. Marx said that culture is the sum of material civilization and spiritual civilization under specific social and historical conditions. If science can't form a culture to spread, there will never be a technological revolution. Only by studying modern science as a culture can our understanding be more comprehensive.