The answer put forward in a source I read many years ago was that China lacked
the insight of perspective, which was a key development in European painting
and was an element, I believe, of the Enlightenment. This was, in effect, an
"enabling" technology which seemed to open European minds to an
entrepreneurial, analytical and empirical approach to problem-solving.
Anyone know the source?
Bob
Ed Goertzen wrote:
> Needham's orienting
> question was: Why, when China was in many ways more
> advanced than Europe even in the 1500s, did Europe "take
> off" but China remained in feudalism?
