Multicivilizational Exchanges in the Making of Modern Science

Multicivilizational Exchanges in the Making of Modern Science PDF Author: Arun Bala
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9789819735402
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores how and why exchanges across civilizations have come to enrich science today. The dialogical dimension of the history of science has long been marginalized by an excessive concern on why modern science emerged in Europe, but not in any of the advanced civilizations of the East. This focus upon what has been called Joseph Needham's "Grand Comparative Question" ignores his other project, focused on showing how dialogues between civilizations have nurtured science. Needham's "Grand Dialogical Question" – if we may call it that by parity – has directly or indirectly inspired a vast body of literature showing how interconnections of civilizations over the last three thousand years, and exchanges of cosmological, mathematical, geographical, physical, biological and medical technologies, techniques, practices and knowledge, have been woven together to produce current science. Bringing together scholars whose research range across multiple civilizations and disciplines, this book investigates the scope and limits of Needham's dialogical vision for science.

Multicivilizational Exchanges in the Making of Modern Science

Multicivilizational Exchanges in the Making of Modern Science PDF Author: Arun Bala
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9789819735402
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores how and why exchanges across civilizations have come to enrich science today. The dialogical dimension of the history of science has long been marginalized by an excessive concern on why modern science emerged in Europe, but not in any of the advanced civilizations of the East. This focus upon what has been called Joseph Needham's "Grand Comparative Question" ignores his other project, focused on showing how dialogues between civilizations have nurtured science. Needham's "Grand Dialogical Question" – if we may call it that by parity – has directly or indirectly inspired a vast body of literature showing how interconnections of civilizations over the last three thousand years, and exchanges of cosmological, mathematical, geographical, physical, biological and medical technologies, techniques, practices and knowledge, have been woven together to produce current science. Bringing together scholars whose research range across multiple civilizations and disciplines, this book investigates the scope and limits of Needham's dialogical vision for science.

Multicivilizational Exchanges in the Making of Modern Science

Multicivilizational Exchanges in the Making of Modern Science PDF Author: Arun Bala
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819735416
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 460

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Rise of Modern Science Explained

The Rise of Modern Science Explained PDF Author: H. Floris Cohen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316404781
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Get Book Here

Book Description
For centuries, laymen and priests, lone thinkers and philosophical schools in Greece, China, the Islamic world and Europe reflected with wisdom and perseverance on how the natural world fits together. As a rule, their methods and conclusions, while often ingenious, were misdirected when viewed from the perspective of modern science. In the 1600s thinkers such as Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Bacon and many others gave revolutionary new twists to traditional ideas and practices, culminating in the work of Isaac Newton half a century later. It was as if the world was being created anew. But why did this recreation begin in Europe rather than elsewhere? This book caps H. Floris Cohen's career-long effort to find answers to this classic question. Here he sets forth a rich but highly accessible account of what, against many odds, made it happen and why.

The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals

The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals PDF Author: Laurence Monnais
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108474667
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Get Book Here

Book Description
Innovative examination of the early globalization of the pharmaceutical industry, arguing that colonialism was crucial to the worldwide diffusion of modern medicines.

The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science

The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science PDF Author: A. Bala
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230601219
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Get Book Here

Book Description
Arun Bala challenges Eurocentric conceptions of history by showing how Chinese, Indian, Arabic, and ancient Egyptian ideas in philosophy, mathematics, cosmology and physics played an indispensable role in making possible the birth of modern science.

Civilizations in Dispute

Civilizations in Dispute PDF Author: Johann P. Arnason
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004405429
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 397

Get Book Here

Book Description
The growing interest in civilizations, both on the level of political controversy ("the clash of civilizations") and in the context of scholarly debates, calls for more theoretical reflection on the problems and perspectives central to this field of social inquiry. This book contains the first systematical and critical survey of classical and contemporary approaches to comparative civilizational analysis; it goes on to outline a theoretical model that draws on the work of historical sociologists as well as on comparative cultural and intellectual history. Civilizations are analyzed as multi-dimensional formations, with particular emphasis on cultural orientations, but also on the autonomous dynamics of political and economic institutions. The last chapter applies this line of argument to questions raised by critics of Eurocentrism and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of postcolonial theory.

Islam and the West

Islam and the West PDF Author: Bernard Lewis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198023936
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies," Bernard Lewis has been for half a century one of the West's foremost scholars of Islamic history and culture, the author of over two dozen books, most notably The Arabs in History, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, The Political Language of Islam, and The Muslim Discovery of Europe. Eminent French historian Robert Mantran has written of Lewis's work: "How could one resist being attracted to the books of an author who opens for you the doors of an unknown or misunderstood universe, who leads you within to its innermost domains: religion, ways of thinking, conceptions of power, culture--an author who upsets notions too often fixed, fallacious, or partisan." In Islam and the West, Bernard Lewis brings together in one volume eleven essays that indeed open doors to the innermost domains of Islam. Lewis ranges far and wide in these essays. He includes long pieces, such as his capsule history of the interaction--in war and peace, in commerce and culture--between Europe and its Islamic neighbors, and shorter ones, such as his deft study of the Arabic word watan and what its linguistic history reveals about the introduction of the idea of patriotism from the West. Lewis offers a revealing look at Edward Gibbon's portrait of Muhammad in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (unlike previous writers, Gibbon saw the rise of Islam not as something separate and isolated, nor as a regrettable aberration from the onward march of the church, but simply as a part of human history); he offers a devastating critique of Edward Said's controversial book, Orientalism; and he gives an account of the impediments to translating from classic Arabic to other languages (the old dictionaries, for one, are packed with scribal errors, misreadings, false analogies, and etymological deductions that pay little attention to the evolution of the language). And he concludes with an astute commentary on the Islamic world today, examining revivalism, fundamentalism, the role of the Shi'a, and the larger question of religious co-existence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. A matchless guide to the background of Middle East conflicts today, Islam and the West presents the seasoned reflections of an eminent authority on one of the most intriguing and little understood regions in the world.

Complementarity Beyond Physics

Complementarity Beyond Physics PDF Author: Arun Bala
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319397842
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this study Arun Bala examines the implications that Niels Bohr’s principle of complementarity holds for fields beyond physics. Bohr, one of the founding figures of modern quantum physics, argued that the principle of complementarity he proposed for understanding atomic processes has parallels in psychology, biology, and social science, as well as in Buddhist and Taoist thought. But Bohr failed to offer any explanation for why complementarity might extend beyond physics, and his claims have been widely rejected by scientists as empty speculation. Scientific scepticism has only been reinforced by the naïve enthusiasm of postmodern relativists and New Age intuitionists, who seize upon Bohr’s ideas to justify anti-realist and mystical positions. Arun Bala offers a detailed defence of Bohr’s claim that complementarity has far-reaching implications for the biological and social sciences, as well as for comparative philosophies of science, by explaining Bohr’s parallels as responses to the omnipresence of grown properties in nature.

Global Politics

Global Politics PDF Author: Ben Whitham
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350328448
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 721

Get Book Here

Book Description
In turbulent global times, your study of this subject is increasingly necessary and urgent. Featuring a new chapter on critical theories, and revised to take a less Eurocentric approach to concepts and case studies, this new edition allows you to tackle global politics' important concepts, debates and problems: -How can theories help us to understand the politics of a global pandemic? -Do we live in a 'post-truth' world of 'fake news' and disinformation? -Does international aid work? -Does the United States remain a global hegemon? -What is the Anthropocene and how does it shape global politics? -Are global politics constrained by a 'North-South' divide? -What are the possible futures of global politics – and the politics of outer space? Delving into topics as diverse as anarchy, intersectionality, Confucianism, and neoconservatism, boxed features give you confidence in political analysis: -Focus on: learn more about the global colour line or the tragedy of the commons -Key figures: discuss the ideas of Hans Morgenthau, Frantz Fanon or bell hooks -Debating: argue whether the United Nations are obsolete, or whether nuclear weapons promote peace -Global politics in action: apply your learning to the migration crisis in Europe or the Arab Spring -Approaches to: consider human rights or the Covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of realist, liberal, postcolonial, Marxist, feminist, constructivist and post-structuralist theory -Global actors: understand the significance of Black Lives Matter, Amnesty International or the International Monetary Fund. Spanning the development of global politics, from the early origins of globalization through to the return of multipolarity in the twenty-first century, this is an essential text for undergraduates studying global politics and international relations.

The Bright Dark Ages

The Bright Dark Ages PDF Author: Arun Bala
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789004264182
Category : Medicine
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The European 'dark ages' in the millennium 500 to 1500 CE was a bright age of scientific achievements in China, India and the Middle East. The contributors to this volume address the implications of this seminal era of Asian science for comparative and connective science studies. Although such studies have generally adopted a binary perspective focusing on one or another of the Asian (Chinese, Indian, Islamic) civilizations, this study brings them together into a single volume within a wider Eurasian perspective. Moreover, by drawing together historical, philosophical, and sociological dimensions into one volume it promotes a richer understanding of how Eurasian connections and comparisons in the millennium preceding the modern era can illuminate the birth and growth of modern science. Contributors are Arun Bala, Andrew Brennan, James Robert Brown, George Gheverghese Joseph, Henrik Lagerlund, Norva Y.S. Lo, Roddam Narasimha, Hyunhee Park, Franklin Thomas Perkins, Hans Pols, Kapil Raj, Sundar Sarukkai, Mohd. Hazim Shah, Geir Sigurðsson and Cecilia Wee.