Expanding Horizons in the History of Science: The Comparative Approach
Cambridge University Press, 8/26/2021
EAN 9781316516249, ISBN10: 1316516245
Hardcover, 200 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.1 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book challenges the common assumption that the predominant focus of the history of science should be the achievements of Western scientists since the so-called Scientific Revolution. The conceptual frameworks within which the members of earlier societies and of modern indigenous groups worked admittedly pose severe problems for our understanding. But rather than dismiss them on the grounds that they are incommensurable with our own and to that extent unintelligible, we should see them as offering opportunities for us to revise many of our own preconceptions. We should accept that the realities to be accounted for are multi-dimensional and that all such accounts are to some extent value-laden. In the process insights from current anthropology and the study of ancient Greece and China especially are brought to bear to suggest how the remit of the history of science can be expanded to achieve a cross-cultural perspective on the problems.
Introduction
1. On aspects of the status quaestionis
2. Translatability, intelligibility, revisability
3. Demystifying the Greek miracle
4. The question of causal factors
5. The criteria of theories, simplicity for instance
6. Definitions and the problems of foreclosure
7. The challenge of 'mythology'
8. Elements, processes, substances, stuff
9. Health and disease, illness and well-being
10. Mind, body, heart, brain, soul, spirit
Conclusions.