Multicultural Histories of Science

Abstract

In recent years there have been numerous calls to reconsider the historical narrative of modern science as solely (or mainly) rooted in the Western or European tradition. This narrative has come to be suspect as historians examining traditions of natural knowledge outside Europe before modern times have increasingly come to recognize the contributions of nonEuropean cultures to modern science. A major pioneer in this direction was Joseph Needham, with his series Science and Civilization in China, the first volume of which was published in 1954. Needham argued that many scientific ideas and technological discoveries earlier attributed to Europe had actually originated in China. Needham’s groundbreaking studies—the most comprehensive modern survey of the scientific and technological accomplishments of any civilization outside Europe—were followed in 1968 by Nasr’s Science and Civilization in Islam, which, although concerned only with documenting Arabic science on its own terms, nevertheless examined the profound influence of Arabic scientists on their modern counterparts. Shortly thereafter, Bose, Sen, and Subbarayappa attempted to do for Indian civilization what Needham and Nasr had done for Chinese and Arabic cultures. Their study in 1971, A Concise History of Science in India, constitutes a comprehensive survey of the main achievements of classical Indian science and the contributions it made to modern science.