Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective [Paperback]

Toby E. Huff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0521170524 | ISBN-13: 978-0521170529

Seventeenth-century Europe witnessed an extraordinary flowering of discoveries and innovations. This study, beginning with the Dutch-invented telescope of 1608, casts Galileo's discoveries into a global framework. Although the telescope was soon transmitted to China, Mughal India, and the Ottoman Empire, those civilizations did not respond as Europeans did to the new instrument. In Europe, there was an extraordinary burst of innovations in microscopy, human anatomy, optics, pneumatics, electrical studies, and the science of mechanics. Nearly all of those aided the emergence of Newton's revolutionary grand synthesis, which unified terrestrial and celestial physics under the law of universal gravitation. That achievement had immense implications for all aspects of modern science, technology, and economic development. The economic implications are set out in the concluding epilogue. All these unique developments suggest why the West experienced a singular scientific and economic ascendancy of at least four centuries.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A magisterial comparative sociology of the relationship between specific social contexts and scientific creativity in seventeenth-century Europe, the Ottoman Empire, Mughal India, and China. With a remarkable eye for detail, Huff elegantly poses the big questions about the past, present, and possible future of modern science in a globalized world." - Zaheer Baber, University of Toronto

"Using the invention and dispersal of the telescope as a probe, Toby Huff examines the initial impact of this discovery machine in Europe compared with the Ottoman and Mughal empires and Ming China. He then turns to other scientific discoveries of the West and their surprisingly absent influence elsewhere. Huff's carefully documented research brings this material together in an altogether new way. His fascinating and lucid historico-sociological investigation casts brilliant light on the preeminence of the West today." - Owen Gingerich, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

"Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution disseminates genuine information about the crucial role played by the West in the history of science, showing that after many centuries of near scientific inactivity, the West, beginning in the twelfth century, saw the virtue of absorbing science and natural philosophy from Greco-Islamic sources. For the numerous reasons Huff presents, the culture of the West, with its corporations, universities, and other features, made it feasible for science to emerge as a powerful force. Huff presents this entire process in a lucid and engaging manner, using the telescope as the instrument that most vividly reveals the striking differences between Europe and the civilizations of China, the Mughals, and the Ottomans. I believe his book will have a significant impact on the history of science, and on history generally." - Edward Grant, Indiana University

"This is a well-researched, objectively written, eminently readable book. Anyone interested in any dimension of modern science and technology will find it useful." - Rajesh Kochhar, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali

"Recommended." -Choice

"...essential reading for all historians of science..." -James Hannam, Quodlibeta

Book Description

This study begins with the Dutch-invented telescope of 1608 and then casts Galileo's discoveries with it into a global framework. Although the telescope was soon transmitted to China, Mughal India, and the Ottoman Empire, those civilizations did not respond as Europeans did to the new instrument. These and subsequent unique developments in modern science, technology, and educational practice suggest why the West experienced a singular scientific and economic ascendancy of at least four centuries.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (October 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521170524
• ISBN-13: 978-0521170529
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #529,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Toby E. Huff was born in Portland, Maine and has been living in the Boston area since 1960. His interest in big questions in the philosophy and history of science led to a life long interest in the problems of Arabic-Islamic science and the question of why modern science developed only in the West. These interests resulted in two major studies, The Rise of early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West (1993), and Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution (2010). The former book was chosen as the Alternative Selection of the Library of Science Book-of-the-Month Club in 1994. While doing research on Islam, science and development, Huff lived in Malaysia and also visited Indonesia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Syria. He taught courses on Women and Islam at UMass Dartmouth for a many years. He is currently a Research Associate in the Dept. of Astronomy at Harvard University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why the West?, November 17, 2010

By 

Chai CL - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective (Hardcover)

This is a very well-researched book. The central question Dr. Huff seeks to answer - Why the West? - is an intellectual riddle that demands not only extraordinary historical and sociological knowledge, but also a high level of academic intelligence. In particular, Dr. Huff cleverly uses the arrival of telescope as a "Rorschach test of scientific curiosity" (p. 20), and shows how natural philosophers in Europe reacted enthusiastically to this "discovery machine" in the seventeen century, in stark comparison with unresponsive attitudes among the Chinese and Mughal Indians. The intense engagement of natural philosophers in Europe with the newly invented telescope demonstrated a high level of scientific curiosity and creativity in European society, not only in the fields of astronomy but also pneumatics, medicine, microscopy, and human anatomy.

This heightened level of intellectual curiosity, coupled with an elevated literacy rate and the unique creation of "legally autonomous" social entities such as universities, ignited an unprecedented intellectual vitality in Europe, which decisively left ancient non-Western civilizations in the dust in terms of modern scientific achievements. It also gave rise to global Western dominance in social, political, and economic realms for the next few centuries and to this day.

Readers will find in this book Dr Huff's meticulous poring over detail historical evidences and his constant probing of the central question "Why the West?" in keeping with an intellectual tradition initiated by Max Weber that remains central to our understanding of global society today.

Some readers may think this is yet another Eurocentric undertaking - Dr. Huff is acutely aware of this - but after reading the book, one cannot but to admit the evidence provided, and the arguments put forward, are compelling.