This 2003 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.
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'Huff cogently substantiates how the underlying cultural values of a society and civilization assist or check scientific inquiry, and thus discloses modern science as an intercivilizational phenomenon.' Choice
'… Huff provides a thorough, coherent hypothesis and thus helps sharpen the debates on the rise of modern science.' MESA Bulletin
'… Huff's comparison of Catholic Europe, Islamic Asia, and Confucian China in terms of natural philosophy and educational institutions is timely and rewarding …'. Benjamin Elman, American Journal of Sociology
'… Huff's excellent book is a comparative study of the development of these exclusive commitments within the thoughts, institutions, and beliefs about the nature of existence and of man in the West, and of the contrasting consequences of the different commitments and beliefs of Islam and China. His scope is impressive.' A. C. Crombie, Journal of Asian Studies
'… provides a definitive, albeit implicit, commentary on the thesis much beloved by some theologians that the Christian doctrine of creation was responsible for the rise of modern science...casts light on the general theme of the origins of modernity … of sustained interest and full of copious reference to primary and secondary literature …' Religious Studies
'… essential reading …'. Scientific and Medical Network Review
'… Huff provides a thorough, coherent hypothesis and thus helps sharpen the debates on the rise of modern science.' MESA Bulletin
'… Huff's comparison of Catholic Europe, Islamic Asia, and Confucian China in terms of natural philosophy and educational institutions is timely and rewarding …'. Benjamin Elman, American Journal of Sociology
'… Huff's excellent book is a comparative study of the development of these exclusive commitments within the thoughts, institutions, and beliefs about the nature of existence and of man in the West, and of the contrasting consequences of the different commitments and beliefs of Islam and China. His scope is impressive.' A. C. Crombie, Journal of Asian Studies
'… provides a definitive, albeit implicit, commentary on the thesis much beloved by some theologians that the Christian doctrine of creation was responsible for the rise of modern science...casts light on the general theme of the origins of modernity … of sustained interest and full of copious reference to primary and secondary literature …' Religious Studies
'… essential reading …'. Scientific and Medical Network Review
Book Description
This 2003 book 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. Huff explores the cultural contexts within which science was practised in Islam, China, and the West.
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In the present world, science and its offshoots appear to be the epitome of modernity. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In the present world, science and its offshoots appear to be the epitome of modernity. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Huff sees science as a social practice which cannot flourish without a social niche for the person who would investigate nature, and covers a long span of history looking at the ways societies create or fail to create those social roles. I have read a good many books on this subject, and Huff's is the most fair-minded, cogent and satisfying. Recommend highly.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Mrr
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found this book when I was scanning the reviews of another book, The Long Divergence, that also explains why the culture and the religion of Islamic societes stagnated their progress. As and engineer and scientist, I ended bying Huff's book instead. The main idea is that what distinguished Western Europe from the other cultures was the independent universities, and that these institutions were possible was based on the new system of laws ot the West that emerged in the 11th and 12th century. The core of the laws was the corporation, an independent entity that could have rules of its own, as long as it operated under the main laws. Another key item was the separation of the state and the church already in the 11th century. This made it possible to develop the scientific world view independent of any religion. Nothing such existed in China or in the Arab-Islam societies. China was ruled by bureucracy and in principle everything was governed by the emperor and what science there was, it was conducted by copy-pasting the text of past wise men. This, however, did not prevent chinese from developing clever technology, but not science. The problem with the Arab-Islam society was that after 12th century, the balance of power fell completely into the hands of the religious leaders, and the ideologue of Islam prevented or in its strictest form even forbade people from trying to understand nature. Every single thing that happened was moment by moment created by the god so that even causality was thougt not to exist. This was sad, because until 12th century, Arab-Islamic societies were the forerunners of science.
An interesting idea is that the language and writing system that the culture uses also has an effect on scientific progress.... Read more ›
An interesting idea is that the language and writing system that the culture uses also has an effect on scientific progress.... Read more ›
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Until the 14th century, science in the Muslim lands and China was more advanced than in Western Europe. Astronomers in Timurid Iran (of all places!) improved on the Ptolemaic system with epicycles mathematically equivalent to those used by Copernicus much later (although they were still geocentrist). That China was more technologically advanced than Europe still at the time of Marco Polo is well-known. Yet, around the 14th century, science in both the Muslim lands and China went into decline, while the erstwhile little backwater of Western Europe eventually developed modern science.
What went wrong? Or, from a European perspective, what did we do right?
That's the subject of Toby E. Huff's book "The Rise of Early Modern Science". Huff is a British professor who also worked at scholarly institutions in Malaysia (a Muslim nation) and Singapore (a Chinese nation). He writes in the tradition of well-known German sociologist Max Weber, who is most known for his thesis that the ethos of Calvinism somehow gave rise to capitalism. Weber also analyzed other religious traditions and their impact on society. As for Huff, his argument is complex and only a short outline is possible in a review like this. Like the other reviewers, I will concentrate on the chapters dealing with Islam and the West.
Huff doesn't deny that Muslim science was, for centuries, more advanced than European science. Indeed, there was virtually no science at all in the Latin West during the Early Middle Ages. Huff also points out that Muslim science was innovative, the most dramatic example being the previously mentioned astromomical observatory at Maragha in Iran.... Read more ›
What went wrong? Or, from a European perspective, what did we do right?
That's the subject of Toby E. Huff's book "The Rise of Early Modern Science". Huff is a British professor who also worked at scholarly institutions in Malaysia (a Muslim nation) and Singapore (a Chinese nation). He writes in the tradition of well-known German sociologist Max Weber, who is most known for his thesis that the ethos of Calvinism somehow gave rise to capitalism. Weber also analyzed other religious traditions and their impact on society. As for Huff, his argument is complex and only a short outline is possible in a review like this. Like the other reviewers, I will concentrate on the chapters dealing with Islam and the West.
Huff doesn't deny that Muslim science was, for centuries, more advanced than European science. Indeed, there was virtually no science at all in the Latin West during the Early Middle Ages. Huff also points out that Muslim science was innovative, the most dramatic example being the previously mentioned astromomical observatory at Maragha in Iran.... Read more ›
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