Talk:Joseph Needham

message: I have removed the references to Needham as "Sir Joseph" or "Sir Needham" because:
* I assume the title was bestowed on him and as not inherited. I assume this because the references to his parents does not suggest they were members of the nobility.
* If the knighthood was bestowed upon Needham rather than inheriting it, the use of it as an honorific is not supported by Wikipedia naming conventions. This is outlined at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles) under "Other non-royal names, point 5.
The actual title bestowed upon Needham could be added to the article (for example, a Knight of the ....?), but for consistency with other articles, the honorific preceding his name should not be used.  Euryalus 11:43, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Use of honorary title in article 

message: In a May 2008 interview, Simon Winchester says that Needham spoke seven languages other than Chinese.  Any information on that?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.49.77.67 (talk) 21:21, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Languages

message: Since there was only one sentence in the subsections, I consolidated. I also substituted another article by Robert Finlay which is more directly concerned with the question.
This section (indeed the whole article) needs to be beefed up. ch (talk) 23:53, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Criticism 

message: Joseph Needham was also an eugenist.In fact, he was among the signatories of the eugenics manifesto in 1939.Agre22 (talk) 12:49, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: He was also an eugenist.

message: I object to the following text in the article (section Evaluations and critiques, second paragraph, final sentence):
:Sivin's criticism can arguably be rejected as ruling out all discussion of causes in history, on the basis that the cause of every historical event is that if it hadn't occurred that would be counterfactual, and thus supposedly not susceptible of a useful answer.
In the first place, it appears to be an editor's opinion. In the second place, the sentence is incoherent. In the third place, assuming I've deciphered the sentence correctly, the editor fails to understand Silvin's criticism. There is an obvious difference between asking why something did happen (a useful question about a factual situation, for which we can examine evidence etc.) and asking why something didn't happen (a useless question about a counterfactual situation, for which there is no evidence to examine).Faagel (talk) 14:47, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Objection to text 

message: There's a broken link for the Terry Lectures in the section Biography: Career. I am not able to fix it. Would someone with permission please do so? Thanks.  KC 19:16, 8 February 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: It wasn't a broken link as such, but there was no article at the destination. I've created Terry Lecture as a redirect to Dwight H. Terry Lectureship. DuncanHill (talk) 19:24, 8 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Broken link 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Joseph Needham. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20040108021127/http://www.guxiang.com:80/lishi/shihua/mingjia/200306/200306190026.htm to http://www.guxiang.com/lishi/shihua/mingjia/200306/200306190026.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 07:47, 28 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Joseph Needham. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110724112804/http://triplejtv.net/local/stories/2009/05/14/2570645.htm to http://triplejtv.net/local/stories/2009/05/14/2570645.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20031009013557/http://www.ihns.ac.cn/needhamrelated.htm to http://www.ihns.ac.cn/needhamrelated.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080316123225/http://www.ihns.ac.cn/news/2004/reference%20for%20needham%20studies.htm to http://www.ihns.ac.cn/news/2004/reference%20for%20needham%20studies.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 17:25, 27 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Joseph Needham. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040218164555/http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/world/2003-03/09/content_767365.htm to http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/world/2003-03/09/content_767365.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 05:31, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The section is now roughly 2,000 words, which approaches half the size of the entire article, and much of the section does not concern or mention Needham, and some does not concern the Needham Question. 
I propose to leave but slightly expand paragraphs one through five ("There are several hypotheses...), then move those further paragraphs that do not mention Needham to the "See also" articles at the head of the section. I will also add several recent references on the Question. 
Readers will still have the section "Evaluations and critiques".ch (talk) 05:01, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reduce "Needham Question" section?