The West European Exception

Mr Gill

It is right to look at the causes of decline of learning in the muslim world but it is wrong to think that muslims were the only ones unable to achieve modern science. This failure was common to the Indic, Sino, Slavic, Muslim and other civilisations, the only one to achieve it was West European even here the momentum shifted from northern Italy to the Germanic races (Anglo Saxons, Dutch, Franks/Gauls and Germania proper) as protestant reform took root there.

There were a number of reasons for this, some of which Huff mentions like the development of neutral spaces like the corporation and the university which were less subject to interference since the state could be played off against the church. others he does not like the impact of Gutenburgs printing press which increased the number of books in western europe from a few thousands to lakhs in a decade or two.

Neither does he mention the power of economics for culture and science both need money, thus science shifted from the rich venice and florence to the productive north. similarly he does not stress on the constant military warfare because the greatest advancements and applications have taken place due to the neccessities of war, the importance of scientists and engineers to the European monarchs for both warfare (da vinci and galilio marketed themselves as military engineers to their patrons) and for predicting their astrological futures which led them to support them against the church.

Also of importance were the indented coastline and broad river systems of western europe which encouraged economic trade and the division of europe into a number of equally balanced kingdoms england, France, hapsburg etc which could fight but not knock out the other and that of italy into a number of welll balanced city states genoa, florence etc.

The benefits of trade and mechanical advancement becoming apparent to the general public and more importantly the businessman/farmer in a self reinforcing cycle partly due to their interaction with the east and then due to their desire to trade with them. For example large ship building which facilitated the discovery of the americas (which in turn was a spurt to scientific advancement) was possible due to large gallies developed to cary on trade with the east as well as to carry heavier and more numerous canon for warfare.

The church itself became more inclined to explore the world around them due to the theology of Thomas Aquinas who encouraged christian scholars to explore the glories of Gods wonderous world in the 11th/12th century. The discovery of the heritage of the ancient greeks philosophy, mathematics and history and that of the advancements made by muslim civilisation in mechanics, mathematics, medicine etc spurred the west on as well.

The protestant reformations role in the shift from southern to western europe should not be underestimated. It was due to the protestant ethic of trying to improve this world, ones own position and that of ones community that so much application driven improvements took place, it also legitimised hard work in the pursuit of business and accumulation of wealth as well as seeking knowledge for its own sake and thuis took forward the rennaissance ideals of the celebration of humanity which drove so much of the italian rennaisance, which itself was a result of the long suppression of mans inner nature by the church and the consequent discovery of greek philosophy through the crusades.

The protestant reformation also translated the bible and made it mandatory for each person to sek his own path to god instead of depending upon a church father to act as an intermediary through a Latin bible, and here too Gutenberg is important because his invention made the translated bible cheaply available to the masses.

Hence the unique nature of the church and the long church - state conflict over a thousand years had an important effect on the development of western europe. one must also not underestimate the role of rich merchants who gave money for practical and nonpractical advances and applications and these merchants in turn were created by the trade within and without (especialy the east). the merchants also gave loans to the monarchs for their warfare as well as taxes for the same purpose and in return wrested political concessions from them which slowly evolved into responsible government.

Thus the development of western europe and of science along with that was the result of a unique set of historical circumstances: geographical, cultural, social, religious, political and economic which were not duplicated elsewhere wether in muslim lands or in china, and Huff says so by pointing out how another advanced civilisation, i.e. that of china was unable to make the leap either.


Mr.Arastoo

there is a practical impediment to identifying with hindu scientists and that is the lack of historical chronicals in the Indic civilisation so there is not a large amount of data available on the achievement of hindu scholars infact a large part of what we know of them comes through the muslims themselves. and most of the muslim scholars were not arabs even though they had arab pseudonyms, they were people stretching over a wide territory from Iran and central asia to spain.