The Eurocentric History of Science

Abstract

By a Eurocentric history of science I mean any account of the birth and growth of modern science that appeals solely to intellectual, social, and cultural influences, causes, and ideas within Europe, and that marginalizes the importance of contributions, if any, of cultures beyond Europe to the birth and growth of modern science. Indeed, until quite recently, the possibility that Europe could have been crucially influenced by other cultures in constructing modern science was hardly entertained.1 A typical view of this kind is expressed by Rupert Hall: Europe took nothing from the East without which modern science could not have been created; on the other hand, what it borrowed was valuable only because it was incorporated in the European intellectual tradition. And this, of course, was founded in Greece. (Hall 1962, p. 6)