The origins of scientific disciplines: a counter-history of western science

Abstract

In this paper we present a historical narrative that rewrites the origins and foundations of modern Western science, particularly of scientific disciplines. We call this rewriting of the history of science ‘counter-history of science’, the history of science of the vanquished or of those made invisible by the history of Western science. In the counter-history of science, we explore how international trade and the research adventures of Europeans in South Asia and in the New World relate to the emergence of scientific disciplines. The results indicate that in the history of Western science there is omission of the participation of other peoples and cultures in the constitution of what we now call Western scientific knowledge. There is also inseparability between trade and the research practices of Europeans in the New World; scientific disciplines are a result of this condition.