Roots of science, non-Western and Western.
In his new book, Lost Discoveries, Dick Teresi sets forth an account of how basic facts about the natural world were discovered and scientific tools were invented in cultures and civilizations other than the West, even as Europe plodded through the Dark Ages. Westerners drew on much of this knowledge as they made discoveries and laid the technological groundwork for the modern age. The New York Times reviews it. (*) The book is partly a long, corrective footnote about our supposedly assured presumptions, made possible now that we know more of the origins of the building blocks of scientific knowledge, such as that of the place-value notation system, which was invented in ancient Babylon. It is also an acknowledgement of cultural achievements that were eventually forgotten. For example, the ancient Chinese knew that the year lasted approximately 365.25 days, but apparently no lasting scientific inquiry was erected on top of that. Other people in another time would have to independently make that same discovery, again.
Many cultures have achieved knowledge, but few have managed to place one foot in front of the other, and to continually build in steps upon already existing knowledge. Moreover, many cultures achieved some measure of knowledge, and then lost that knowledge for one reason or another. This is tragedy. When the Incan library and the Alexandria library burned, the contributions of generations went up in smoke.
Lest we Westerners feel assured in our repose of scientific and technological achievement, we ought to remember that all knowledge is perishable. The only way to secure knowledge is not to hide it in a cave, or to entrust it only to elites, but to free it. The only way to save science is to let all men practice it. While the West systematized science, and formulated the scientific method, there is nothing special about the West that predestined it to scientific success. The insights we have available to us were won slowly and with much struggle, intellectually and politically. For every Newton there was at least one Galileo. There is every sign, in this age of fascist totalitarian terrorists and fundamentalist anti-intellectuals, that to protect the storehouse of knowledge that men have today, and to extend its benefits to all, and to extend its reach ever deeper into the mysteries of nature, will require more struggle. So, possessed of this conviction and of the rectitude of the critical mentality, we march on. Only now, thanks to writers like Teresi, we can be even firmer in our belief that science rightly belongs not to only one civilization, but to all humanity.
December 4th, 2002 at 16:38
The nice thing about being educated is that it allows you to be open minded about so many things. This post reminds me that education is the greatest leveller of all. The more we learn, the more we know that there is so very much that we do not know. It is a true gift to be plain intellectually curious and there are too few people who have this quality, too many are dogmatic and indoctrinated, the type that reads a book to confirm their own judgements as opposed to learning something new.
Knowledge is power. And freedom.
December 5th, 2002 at 21:11
I heard a really interesting story on NPR today about the Greco-Buddhists of 2cnd century AD Afghanistan today. It might be worth your while to look it up on NPR.org.
It was fascinating.
December 10th, 2002 at 19:05
Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, pp 485-502, has an excellent article on "indigenous knowledge" in non-western world. The rest of the encyclopedia is full of articles chronicling the extent of science, techonology and medical developments in the Non-western world. The book is expensive though, $250 for a single-vol a little over 1000 pages, so it won’t be any but the largest libraries, but, in my experience, 36 years at Western Washington University Library, this is the only single volume source with such comprehensive coverage.
December 11th, 2002 at 23:58
Good reference, thanks. I’ll remember to check that out on my next trip to the library.