Associate Professor HIRAOKA, Ryuji
Associate Professor HIRAOKA, Ryuji
- Academic Degree
- Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University
- Expertise
- History of science
- Research Theme
- Traditional science in East Asia
Traditional science in East Asia
My work seeks to clarify the theoretical character and historical development of traditional science in East Asia, particularly sixteenth- to nineteenth-century astronomy. This research considers not only documentary records in relevant languages but also non-documentary historical materials like diagrams and apparatus, with due consideration for the interactions of Eastern and Western knowledge out of which these items arose. Through analysis of these materials, I aim to find clues to larger issues such as global awareness and its representations in premodern East Asia, how the relationship between nature and humans was understood, and various aspects of contribution and opposition to modernization as it gathered pace in the nineteenth century.