21 Mar '11 10:11>
The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West
Toby E. Huff
Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition (2003)
This study examines the long-standing question of why modern
science arose only in the West and not in the civilizations of Islam
and China, despite the fact that medieval Islam and China were
more scientifically advanced. To explain this outcome, Tony E. Huff
explores the cultural - religious, legal, philosophical, and
institutional - contexts within which science was practised in Islam,
China, and the West. He finds in the history of law and the European
cultural revolution of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries major clues
as to why the ethos of science arose in the West, permitting the
breakthrough to modern science that did not occur elsewhere. This
line of inquiry leads to novel ideas about the centrality of the legal
concept of corporation, which is unique to the West and gave rise to
the concepts of neutral space and free inquiry.
Toby E. Huff
Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition (2003)
This study examines the long-standing question of why modern
science arose only in the West and not in the civilizations of Islam
and China, despite the fact that medieval Islam and China were
more scientifically advanced. To explain this outcome, Tony E. Huff
explores the cultural - religious, legal, philosophical, and
institutional - contexts within which science was practised in Islam,
China, and the West. He finds in the history of law and the European
cultural revolution of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries major clues
as to why the ethos of science arose in the West, permitting the
breakthrough to modern science that did not occur elsewhere. This
line of inquiry leads to novel ideas about the centrality of the legal
concept of corporation, which is unique to the West and gave rise to
the concepts of neutral space and free inquiry.