Science,
the West and the Rest
Science, the West and the Rest
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
origins connection in Enlightenment
modern vs. pre-modern
Western vs. non-Western
how is science universal?
science as a cultural phenomenon
Science, the West and the Rest
Henry Kissinger
Barack Obama
Henry Kissinger (1966)
“[The West] is deeply committed to the notion
that the real world is external to the observer,
that knowledge consists of recording and
classifying data – the more accurately the
better.”
“Cultures which escaped the early impact of
Newtonian thinking have retained the
essentially pre-Newtonian view that the real
world is almost completely internal to the
observer. (…) [E]mpirical reality has a much
different significance for many of the new
countries than for the West because in a
certain sense they never went through the
process of discovering it.”
Barack Obama (2009)
1. Science and Enlightenment
 adoration of Newton
 power of science and human reason
 science of man and society,
improvement of society
Francesco Algarotti,
Il Newtonianismo per le
Dame ovvero Dialoghi
sopra la Luce e i Colori
(1737)
Tom Telescope,
The Newtonian
System, of
Philosophy,
Adapted to the
Capacities of
Young
Gentlemen and
Ladies (1761)
1. Science and Enlightenment
 adoration of Newton
 power of science and human reason
 science of man and society,
improvement of society
2. modern vs. pre-modern
 belief in progress
 Jean le Rond d’Alembert
 Enlightenment vs. ‘dark’ Middle Ages
3. Europe vs. the rest
 superiority
 before: Europeans in awe of oriental
courts, great empires of the East
François I (1494-1541)
Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566)
Suleiman the Magnificent to
François I:
“I, Sultan of Sultans, Leader of the
Lords, Crown of the Sovereigns of
the Earth, the Shadow of God in
the Two Worlds, Shah of Baghdad,
Sultan and Padishah of the
Mediterranean, the Black Sea,
Rumelia, Anatolia, Armenia,
Karaman, Azerbaijan, Iran, Syria,
Egypt, Mecca, Medina, and all the
Arab lands,
and you, Francis, King of the
Province of France.” (ca. 1530)
3. Europe vs. the rest
 From 18th century: Europa as
more/most advanced civilization
 Tension: science as universal vs.
science as European
 Different conceptions of universality
4. history of universalism
 Christianity: universal pretensions,
regionally bound
 after 16th century wars of religion:
Europe redefined by civilization,
modernity, science
 universality & regionality
4. history of universalism
 17th-18th century:
ideal of “Republic of Letters”:
 men of learning disregard differences of
birth, nation and religion, and form a
cosmopolitan community, open to
everybody
 reality Republic of Letters
 European?
4. history of universalism
 19th century:
nationalism in science
 science as product ofnational
culture
 scientists as Kulturträger
 combined with international
organization and exchange
 cf. Olympic Games
 cf. World Expos
1. history of universalism
1. history of universalism
4. history of universalism
20th century socialists: global science
 H.G. Wells
 Einstein, Manifesto to the Europeans
 J.D. Bernal:
 science as part of any society
 Joseph Needham: local streams into
one universal “river of truth”
4. history of universalism
mid-20th century anti-communists:
science is of “the West”
 Butterfield
 Gillispie (1960)
 Floris Cohen (2008)
4A. Emphasis on the West/Europe:
Herbert Butterfield
“The scientific revolution we must
regard (…) as a creative product of the
West – depending on a complicated set
of conditions which existed only in
western Europe.”
The Origins of Modern Science (1949)
4A. Emphasis on the West/Europe:
Geoffrey Barraclough
“[A]ll the things which made Europe the
focal point of historical events (…) – its
science, its technology, its industrial
strength – sprang in the end from the
Scientific Revolution.”
Turning Points in World History (1963)
4A. Emphasis on the West/Europe:
Charles Gillispie
“The hard trial will begin when the
instruments of power created by
the West come fully into the hands
of men not of the West, formed in
cultures and religions which leave
them quite devoid of the Western
sense of some ultimate
responsibility. (…) [W]hat will the
day hold when China wields the
bomb? And Egypt? Will Aurora light
a rosy-fingered dawn out of the
East? Or will Nemesis?”
The Edge of Objectivity (1960)
4A. Emphasis on the West/Europe:
Henry Kissinger
“they never went
through the process of
discovering”
4B. Emphasis on the universal:
George Sarton
“Science is mankind’s most
precious patrimony.”
“There is no German or French
science; there is only one human
science. Of course, there are
French, German, English
laboratories…, but their
accomplishments are the results of
innumerable efforts by scientists of
all nationalities, and the discoveries
made there are immediately added
to the international patrimony of
human thought.”
Sarton (1913)
Barack Obama (2009)
“Islam ... paving
the way for
Europe’s
Renaissance and
Enlightenment.”
4B. Emphasis on the universal:




George Sarton
J.D. Bernal
Joseph Needham
Barack Obama
 still one single standard: ours
5. Europe vs. de rest?
 the Needham question:
why did modern science emerge in Europe
only?
 also asked by non-Westerners
 asking it for other areas
 science as culture