Quote from Unschuld

[Guest guest]

" The travel of ideas is different from the travel of merchandise. The

latter can be handed on, from one person to the next, by different

means of transportation, without itself undergoing any change. Ideas

must be transmitted by the head, and, of necessity, will undergo

change. Where could a foreign idea be accepted, assimilated, or

transmitted without being influenced by the particular situation it

meets, by the changing languages that serve as its means of

transportation, and by the preconditioned patterns of thought

cherished by the final receiver? "

 

from Medicine in China: A History of Ideas, by Paul U. Unschuld.

University of Calif. Press, 1985. p.55.

 

This is from section 3.1.2 of the above mentioned

book. He's talking about Systematic Correspondence

and the speculation that Greek and Chinese thought,

the likes of which underlie the Chinese recognition

" that not just one, two, or a limited number of

elements for a line of correspondence, but that

most, if not all, natural occurrences and abstract

concepts can be incorporated into a single system

of correspondence " , may have shared a common origin

" from one unknown source somewhere between Greece

and China... "

 

Clearly, the same principles and perspectives

he brings to the understanding of the ancient

transmission of ideas can be applied to our

contemporary circumstances.

 

Ken