Beyond Imagined Discontinuity: Review of the Book Series Science and Civilization in Korea

Abstract

abstract: This review essay examines the ambitious thirty-volume series Science and Civilization in Korea (SCK), published between 2010 and 2022. Input from over sixty Korean scholars traces the evolution of Korean science and technology, from elementary tools to advanced semiconductor technology. Inspired by Joseph Needham's series Science and Civilization in China, SCK seeks to reveal the "universal value" embedded in Korean civilization, extending to the tumultuous eras of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This review essay probes SCK's implications and boundaries, elucidating the influences molding its narrative and identifying omissions. It also considers alternative narratives. Albeit rooted in use-centered historiography, such narratives would not be restricted to the local but underscore an array of practices striving for compatibility with global resources. Moreover, they could bridge the "imagined discontinuity"—the notion of rupture around 1900—between "tradition" and "modern" and thus cultivate a more seamless chronicle of Korea's history of technology.