STS- The Spread of Western Science

7/28/2019 STS- The Spread of Western Science

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Italy

France

England

Netherlands Germany

Austria

Scandinavian countries


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Military conquest

Colonization imperial influence

Commercial and political relations

Missionary activity


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There are three overlapping phases in the diffusion ofWestern Science

The figure below shows the sequencing andoverlapping of the phases

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3

TIME

LEVEL OFSCIENTIFICACTIVITY


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1. Nonscientific society or nation provides a source forEuropean science

2. Colonial science3. Independent scientific tradition or culture


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Nonscientific society or nation provides a source forEuropean science


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This phase refers to European science being provided tononscientificsocieties that did not have modern

Western science but may have had ancient, indigenousscientific thought (e.g. India and China)

Science during the initial phase is an extension ofgeographical exploration and includes the appraisal ofnatural resources

Historical records are filled with examples of Europeannaturalists who survey and collect the flora and faunathey find in the new land, studies its physical features, andthen takes their findings back to Europe


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It gave rise to the new studies of plant and animalgeography which influenced the Darwinian theory oforganic evolution

The scientist who went on exploratory expeditionsfound that the experience gained from studyingnatural history in a foreign land modified his own

scientific views

This phase is characterized by the European whoexplores new lands


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Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo

first naturalist of the NewWorld

wrote a book on the naturalhistory of the West Indies (1535)

the leading naturalist of thistrend that lasted til the 19thcentury and culminated in the

work of the likes of CharlesDarwin


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Thomas Harriot

A traveler and writer onthe natives and natural

products of Virginia

Started a NorthAmerican group ofcollectors, geologists,and surveyors


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In Japan, natural history was already being studied before the arrival ofthe Christian missionaries in the late 16th century.

Modern Science developed in Europe this century and by 17th

century, scientific societies in Europe are found.

However, European thinkers were greatly stimulated by writingsobtained from Muslim writers and scholars. They also benefitedfrom Math concepts developed inWest Asia (Middle East) and India,

and from technological advancements from China. Knowledgepossibly traveled via the Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe.


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The Pacific Ocean was opened to European scientistsby three exploratory voyages: CaptainJames Cook(1768 and 1780 to Autralia); Sir Joseph Dalton HookerandAlfred Russell Wallace (to Antarctica in 1839-43and the Malay Archipelago in 1856-62


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Capt. James Cooks voyage

Uncovered the botanical,

zoological, andethnological treasures ofthe Australian continent


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Andreas Cleyer Enghelbert Kaempfer

Andreas Cleyer and Enghelbert Kaempfer(Germans) are noted for their botanicalwork in Japan


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China was opened to Western ideas by the Jesuits in1583 and hundreds of European scientists journeyed toChina in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries


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Europe had more than 80 universities by the 17thcentury.

There was more intellectual plurality in Europe (thanin China, for example) because universities were notforced by any single-state to adhere to a singleideology.


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American colonial naturalists (e.g. Mark Catesby, Johnand William Bartram, Alexander Garden, Peter Kalm, and

John Clayton) joined their European-based colleagues andcontinued to expand European knowledge of the naturalhistory of the northeastern and southeastern United States

England replaced Portugal as the major influence inIndian affairs, especially in trade

Professional scientists were also engaged in study of thenatural history of India like Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker

whose botanical expedition to the Himalayas was the basisfor his Flora Indica (1855)


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Napoleon Bonaparte

The most ambitious18th-century scientific

expedition was mountedin 1798 byNapoleonBonaparte as part of hismilitary campaign in

Egypt


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From the 16th through the 18th centuries, there was aconstant stream of Spanish, French, German, Dutch,Swedish, and English naturalists traveling on scientificexpeditions to South America.

The wave of modern science had traveled from Europeacross the Atlantic to the eastern and middle-western

United States

The American West was the scene of phase-1 science


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Colonial Science


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Reaches a higher level of scientific activity than phase 1

Theperiod of colonial science

Colonial science is dependent science because thescientific activity in the new land is based primarilyupon institutionsand traditions of a nation withan established scientific culture

Colonial sciences strength lies in the growingnumber of practicing scientists


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Colonial science does not imply that the science in the non-European nation is suppressed or maintained in a servile state byan imperial power and it can also occur in situations where thereis no actually colonial relationship

The dependency does not mean that colonial science is inferiorto European science (e.g. Colonial science in Latin Americaadvanced slowly as compared with developments in WesternEurope because modern science had not been extensively

cultivated by their colonizers, Spain and Portugal.


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May be a native or a transplanted European colonist orsettler

The sources of his education and his institutionalattachments are beyond the boundaries of the land inwhich he carries out his scientific work


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Formally trained

Receives some or all ofhis scientific education

in a European institution

Studied the works ofEuropean scientists and

will have purchased hisbooks, laboratoryequipment, andscientific instruments

from European suppliers

Informally trained

Note:Disadvantage: Colonial scientists areoriented toward an established scientificculture but cannot share in the informalscientific organizations of that culture


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Benjamin Franklin

A creative experimentalistand theorizer

Researches on electricityovershadowed thecontributions of many of hisEuropean contemporaries

His intellectual andinstitutional home wasLondon and Paris, notPhiladelphia, and that hismodel was Sir Isaac Newton


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Mikhail V. Lomonoso

Held a similar position inRussian colonial science

His intellectual base wasoutside of Russia (inGermany)


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The American colonial period of science extendedbeyond the nations colonial political status

Hundreds of American scientists in the late 19th andearly 20th century pursued graduate studies andPh.D.s in Europe

American scientific institutions could not provide thetraining they needed to bring them to the forefront ofscientific knowledge


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Japanese colonial science grew slowly, thwarted bygovernmental prohibition, linguistic barriers,and cultural resistance

16th-century Jesuit missionaries carried Europeanscience to Japan

It was banned in 1636 when the government moved tohalt the infiltration of Western religion and thought


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In the first half of the 18th century, Western ideas werepermitted to enter in the form of Sino-Jesuit scientifictreatises and Dutch books

Japanese scholars translated Dutch books on Westernscience when the ban was removed; they also repeatedthe experiments they learned about

After 1868, the Japanese government undertook aprogram that paid special attention to the science ofthe West (modernization)


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Political and cultural nationalismwas the movingforce from dependency to independence

Nationalistic feelings may be significant in thetransition from phase 2 to phase 3

Although the colonial scientist looks for external

support, he does begin to create institutions andtraditions which will eventually provide the basis foran independent scientific culture


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Phase 3 is about the process of transplantation with astruggle to achieve anindependent scientific tradition(or culture)

This is the least understood aspect of the process oftransference of modern science to the wider world


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1. Receive most of his training at home;2. Gain some respect and earn his living as a scientist in his

own country;

3. Find intellectual stimulation within his own expanding

scientific community;4. Be able to communicate his ideas easily to his fellow

scientists at home and abroad;

5. Have a better opportunity to open new fields of scientificendeavor; and

6. Look forward to the reward of national honors--bestowed by native scientific organizations or thegovernment--when he has done superior work.


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1. Resistance to science on the basis of philosophicaland religious beliefs must be overcome.

2. The social role and place of scientist need to bedetermined in order to insure societys approval ofhis labors.

3. The relationship between science and governmentshould be clarified.

4. The teaching of science should be introduced into alllevels of educational system.


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5. Native Scientific organizations should be founded.

6. Channels must be opened to facilitate formalnational and international scientific communication

7. Proper Technological base should be made availablefor the growth of science.


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European development was linear and liberal, thisallowed them to develop further the knowledge theygot from the East and turn it into Modern Science.China's scientific development was cyclical and

extremely conservative which prevented them fromkeeping and further developing the technology whichthey had originally invented.


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Lang, Graeme. Why Science did not develop in China: AHistorical Comparison.

http://www.riseofthewest.net/thinkers/lang03.htm
http://www.riseofthewest.net/thinkers/lang03.htmhttp://www.riseofthewest.net/thinkers/lang03.htmhttp://www.riseofthewest.net/thinkers/lang03.htm

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STS- The Spread of Western Science