Global Study 1 Midterm Essay
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Lecture_6Spring.pptxThe Scientific Revolution: Grappling with Another Hegemonic Narrative…
According to David Hess (1995):
The standard western version of the scientific revolution is a kind of teleology – “the triumph of reason…passed on from one heroic Great White Man to another”
This story consists of three principal parts:
1) The invention of science by ancient Greeks/Romans
2) With the destruction of the Roman Empire, a “Dark Ages” descended upon Europe. Arabs preserved that science and many of the texts upon which it was based, but they did not add anything original
3) These texts and the science they contained were rediscovered during the European Renaissance (1400 CE - 1600 CE), and they served as the jumping-off point for the creation of modern scientific theories / scientific methods
Little room for “exchanges between the West and the rest”
Some Possible Solutions?
Because the standard story is structured around the sudden rediscovery by modern Europeans of ancient European wisdom (after a “Dark Age”), let’s begin by asking two questions:
1) How “western” was science?
2) Was it really rooted in a “sudden rediscovery,” or might it be better described as the acceleration of a continuous process?
It makes sense to start with an investigation of the “non-western” peoples most commonly cited in narratives of the scientific revolution – Muslim Arabs and those who lived under them in North Africa / Central Asia
Have been relegated to the role of preservers of ancient European science, who contributed very little by way of intellectual innovation
Some “Non-Western” Scientific Traditions…Version 1.0
Our language contains clues that this image is inaccurate!
A single Persian mathematician, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780 CE - c. 850 CE), gave birth to two terms still used today – Algorithm and Algebra
The former is derived from the last portion of his name, which was translated into Latin as “Algoritmi”
The latter comes from his book, titled Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah (c. 830 CE)
He is credited with writing the first book on the systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations, and with writing another book, which was crucial in introducing the Hindu-Arabic number system to Medieval Europe
This is the basic number system used to this day (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Some “Non-Western” Scientific Traditions…Version 1.0
He was a prominent member of an earlier scientific revolution under the Abbasid caliphate (750 CE – 1258 CE)
The Abbasids were consciously cosmopolitan and inclusive
Empowered non-Arabs (mainly those who were culturally Persian…) and absorbed them into Islam
At the same time, travel and trade flourished under them, feeding from and into this cultural efflorescence
Such travel and trade, in turn, produced a large tax base and steady flow of income into the caliphal Treasury
Finally, the Abbasid caliphate coincided with “a paper revolution,” whereby more expensive / elitist methods of writing (on papyrus and parchment) were replaced by this more affordable medium
Literacy is thought to have increased dramatically
Papermaking was learned from the Chinese in the 8th Century CE
Some “Non-Western” Scientific Traditions…Version 2.0
These new number systems / new technologies suggest that there were scientific traditions even further east that Abbasid thinkers drew upon
This is precisely where Joseph Needham (1981) picks up:
He acknowledges that something special took place in Europe, starting around 1500 CE, but argues that, before then, China frequently anticipated discoveries we now associate with the “west”
By the end of the Tang dynasty (618 CE - 907 CE) accounts exist of conflagrations resulting from combining saltpeter, sulphur, and carbon
By the early 10th-century CE, the Chinese were using gunpowder for flame-throwers, bombs, cannons, and flaming arrows
Woodblock printing was also developed during the Tang dynasty. Two pages of a text were printed on the same side of a single sheet of paper; it was then folded and sewn with others to produce a book with a paper cover
It is clear that several types of navigational compasses existed by the Song dynasty (960 CE – 1279 CE) and were in constant use by Chinese mariners of the time
Some “Non-Western” Scientific Traditions… Version 2.0
Why was scientific thought in China so impressive at specific times?
Tang dynasty (618 CE-906 CE)
Efficiency of its administration and its cosmopolitan culture attracted the attention of outsiders
From Turkic, Persian, Arab, and East Asian backgrounds
Administrative institutions were reformed and success in the educational system became more important in the selection of officials
Improved the waterways, while restructuring the system of land ownership
Song dynasty (960 CE – 1279 CE)
Sophisticated bureaucracy became the backbone of government
Established governmental schools / private academies throughout the empire
Eliminated the dominant influence of landholders / formulated a new social order based on learning
Economy benefited from a number of developments, including government sponsored projects in irrigation, commercialization of agricultural production, expansion of craft industries, and the creation of long distance markets
Headed Back West…Because Something Must Have Happened There!
Even those who are committed to deconstructing the teleological narrative of the European scientific revolution acknowledge as much
What made Europe (c. 1500 CE) comparable in its scientific achievements to the Abbasids and the Tang / Song dynasties?
1) Humanism – proponents looked for a renewal of learning to be brought about in part through the study of ancient Greeks / Romans
Believed that their knowledge could contribute to a Renaissance (rebirth) of European civilization
Tracked down/translated ancient Greek/Roman texts
2) Moveable Type Printing Press
Humanists’ emphasis on texts and their accurate reproduction, along with growing literacy rates, drove Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1398 CE – 1468 CE) to invent a more efficient form of printing
Metal type could be assembled into full pages of text, their surfaces smeared with ink and pressed against paper. After pressing many copies, the type could be taken apart and rearranged
Made the communication of standardized knowledge much easier
Headed Back West…Because Something Must Have Happened There!
3) Intellectual Accommodation of the “New World”
It must have been challenging to accommodate all the new information being generated by explorers and their descriptions of distant lands
New plants, animals, minerals, medicines, and reports of new peoples, languages, ideas, observations, and phenomena overwhelmed Europe’s ability to digest them
Required revision of ideas about the natural world and new methods for organizing knowledge
Humanists were initially devoted to ancient Greek / Roman thought, but information filtering into Europe from the “New World” forced them to confront their predecessors’ errors and come up with new techniques for understanding / controlling nature
The work of naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707 CE – 1778 CE) would never have come about had he not been forced to grapple with the plant and animal species discovered in previous centuries
His book Systema Naturae (1735 CE) laid the foundations for scientific taxonomy, dividing the natural world into kingdoms, classes, orders, genera, and species
Headed Back West…Because Something Must Have Happened There!
4) Protestant Reformation & Catholic Counter-Reformation
The 1500s CE witnessed the most monumental schism that Christianity has ever experienced
The figure most associated with this schism was a priest named Martin Luther (1483 CE – 1546 CE), who called on the Catholic Church to reform itself
Protestants placed emphasis on literacy and reading the Bible, the idea being to receive God’s word in an unmediated form
Reinforced by the fact that universities, which had been dedicated primarily to educating Catholic clerics, came under the sway of Protestantism in certain areas, encouraging them to rework their curricula
Incorporated new subjects / approaches that had not found a place in older institutions
In response, the Catholic Church undertook its own reforms that included improved education for priests and the foundation of a new religious order, the Jesuits (1540)
Members devoted themselves to education and scholarship, and made significant contributions to science, mathematics, and technology
Some Conclusions?
What lessons can be drawn from these three case studies?
1) We should not speak about the scientific revolution in Europe (as if it were the only one), but about scientific revolutions (in the plural) that took place at different times in different locations
2) Along those same lines, we should talk about modern or cosmopolitan science rather than “western science”
What do the Abbasid caliphate, Tang/Song dynasty China, and early modern Europe have in common? Are there certain cultural, economic, and political conditions that they share – that all societies which produce scientific revolutions share?
Strong, stable states
Investment in infrastructure
Access to new communications technologies
Enhanced exposure to other peoples / their traditions of thought
What else should be included in this list?
