Moulds of Understanding. A Pattern of Natural Philosophy

London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1976. First edition.

SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY OF ESSAYS ON SCIENCE, SOCIETY, AND CHINA BY BRILLIANT BIOLOGIST, SINOLOGIST, AND GLOBALIST.

13.5x22 cm hardcover, red cloth binding, top edge stained red, inscribed and signed on front free endpaper, "for Edmund Cain/ with best wishes/ New Year 84/ Joseph Needham," 320 pp. Near fine in near-fine price clipped dust jacket in protective mylar sleeve. FROM THE JACKET FLAP: "This book presents an examination of the relationships between science, religion and politics, and of the nature of applied science in capitalist societies. It speaks also of the potential contribution of Asian thought and culture in tackling the problems of all societies based on advanced technology." The last essay, written in 1974, is titled, "An Eastern Perspective on Western Anti-Science."

NOEL JOSEPH TERENCE MONTGOMERY NEEDHAM (1900 - 1995) was a British scientist, historian and sinologist known for his groundbreaking research in biochemistry and embryology, and his herculean multivolume history of Chinese science and technology. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and as a fellow of the British Academy in 1971. In 1992, the Queen conferred on him the Companionship of Honour and the Royal Society noted he was the only living person to hold these three titles. Although his career as biochemist and an academic was well established, his career developed in unanticipated directions during and after World War II. Three Chinese scientists came to work with Needham in 1937 and taught Needham Chinese, igniting his interest in China's ancient technological and scientific past. Under the Royal Society's direction, Needham was the director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office in Chongqing from 1942 to 1946. Everywhere he went he purchased and was given old historical and scientific books which he shipped back to England through diplomatic channels and were to form the foundation of his later research. On his return to the west, he was asked by Julian Huxley to become the first head of the Natural Sciences Section of UNESCO in Paris. It was Needham who insisted that science should be included in the organization's mandate at an earlier planning meeting.

PROVENANCE: EDMUND J. CAIN was the Vice President (retired, 2018) of Grant Programs at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation where he oversaw all domestic and international grant programming. Prior to joining the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, he was Director of The Carter Center's Global Development Initiative. Beginning in 1972, he also had a long career with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with career assignments covering Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Egypt. In 1996, he was instrumental in creating the United Nations' emergency response division and became its first director.