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Some Light on the Far East

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WittfogelKarl A., Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1957, 556 pp. $7.50.
NeedhamJoseph, Science and Civilization in China, Vol. I: Introductory Orientations, Cambridge, England, and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1954, 318 pp. $10.00; Vol. II: History of Scientific Thought, Cambridge, England, and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1956, 696 pp. $14.50.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Marion J. Levy Jr
Marion J. Levy Jr
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Review Articles
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World Politics , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , April 1958, pp. 462 - 474
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Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1958

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References

1 On the other hand, one of the least rewarding aspects of Oriental Despotism in the intellectual sense is the pursuit and punishment of those intellectual and political figures whom Professor Wittfogel regards as having perverted the true Iesson of Marx either ignorantly or meretriciously or both. Marx himself is not immune to the lash. Such hot pursuit may, of course, be of the greatest importance for other purposes.

2 It is a pity that Professor Needham lacked the advantage of consulting this work.

3 In the American Historical Review, LXII, No. 4 (July 1957), pp. 918–20.

4 Review of Vol. I in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, XVIII, Nos. 1 and 2 (June 1955), pp. 270–83; review of Vol. II pending.

5 In the journal of Asian Studies, XVI, No. 2 (February 1957), pp. 261–71.

6 There is some question as to whether Professor Needham's illustrative quotation (Vol. II, p. 82) is not a much better example of Taoist sensitivity to perspective than of a prefigured relativity. Indeed, it may actually contradict relativity theory.

7 Gillispie, Charles C., “Perspectives,” American Scientist, XLV, No. 2 (March 1957), pp. 169–76.Google Scholar