Too often in the history of science in non-Western societies, historians have asked why a particular society or culture did not develop "true" knowledge about the natural environment. This tendency is especially pronounced in the case of China. There, some Western observers have lauded Chinese observational precision and technological development while others have insisted that ancient China had no real science. For these critics, science is defined by the kind of axiomatic-deductive reasoning held to be characteristic both of Greek scientific thought and, ultimately, of science tout court.
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