>apropos the eurocentrism view of scientific, technological and capitalist
>origins, in a muslim forum i asked this question: "What happened to muslim
>science?", knowing that it and its accompanying technology were the most
>advanced in the world during the middle ages.
>
>i received a number of interesting responses from muslim scholars.
>
>some of these scholars said that about 1000, muslim clerics became more
>conservative, didn't want their scientists and technicians, along with
>jewish ones scattered among them, medddling with nature any more and had
>enough political power to close down scientific investigations.
>
>of course, european scientists and technologists learned from their muslim
>and jewish counterparts and went on to contribute towards western science,
>technology, capitalism and world hegemony that persists today.
>
>so, my theory is that because european political and religious power was
>much more fragmented than that of the west asian muslim world, they were
>unable to close down science and technology in the west and the rest is
>history, as they say.
>
>flaws in my theory?
>
>norm
It's certainly a possibility. If Martin Luther had come along a
century and a half later, there would have been no one in western
Europe to develop Copernican physics after the trial of Galileo. It's
certainly possible that inventive activity would have stagnated.
Ken Pomeranz's _The Great Divergence_ makes the strongest argument I
have seen that Europe's breakthrough to industrial capitalism and
technology was a near-run thing...
Brad DeLong
--
J. Bradford DeLong
Professor of Economics, U.C. Berkeley
601 Evans Hall, #3880
Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
(510) 643-4027 voice
(510) 642-6615 fax
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/
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