Asia, Europe, and the Emergence of Modern Science

ARUN BALA is currently a visiting senior research Fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore working on issues in dialogical science studies in Asia. He is the author of The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science (Palgrave 2006).

'The research is timely, and because this is an emerging field, this volume should remain a noteworthy pioneering work for a significant time. By collecting essays from scholars with a wide range of expertise, this book will make a lasting impact upon the field.' Roger Hart, author of Imagined Civilizations: China, the West, and Their First Encounter 'This is a timely and significant volume, which will contribute much to our understanding of the diverse sources and origins of the sciences as we know them today. The contributors also look to the future, by examining how further cross-cultural exchange could shape and advance the scientific endeavors of tomorrow.' Cecilia Wee, author of Material Falsity and Error in Descartes' Meditations 'This collection of essays is a remarkable contribution to a growing body of scholarship that, while questioning the Eurocentrism which pervades mainstream history of science, does not simply plead for a right to the co-existence of western and non-western sciences in history it compellingly argues for the rise and development of the modern sciences themselves through processes of circulation and interaction of knowledge between the world's different cultures.' Kapil Raj, author of Relocating Modern Science 'This stimulating collection of essays draws our attention to the Eurocentric nature of mainstream scholarship in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. It pushes us to rethink how we conceive of science its historical roots, its social organization, and its philosophical basis. Although readers will not agree with the main thrust of every chapter they read in this provocative collection, the issues raised here are exactly the ones scholars need to address at this point in the development of science studies.' Bernard Lightman, professor of Humanities, York University, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and editor of Isis

• PART I: TOWARD DIALOGICAL HISTORY Global Dialogical History and the Challenge of Neo-Eurocentrism; J.M.Hobson   A Passage to Infinity: The Contribution of Kerala to Modern Mathematics; G.G.Joseph  Copernicus, Arabic Science and Scientific (R)evolutions; M.Kokowski   Time Atomism and Ash'arite Origins for Cartesian Occasionalism Revisited; R.T.W.Arthur   Pramanas, Proofs and the Yukti of Classical Indic Science; R.Narasimha   PART II: SCIENCE, RATIONALITY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE Traditional Knowledge and the Smallpox Eradication Campaign; J.R.Brown   The Dialogical Copernican Revolution: Implications for Scientific Method; A.Bala   How Indigenous are 'Indigenous Sciences'? The Case of 'Islamic Sciences'; A.Paya   The Role of Intercultural Dialogue in the Rise of Modern Science; A.Khursheed   Science, Technology and Civilization Reconsidered; A.Brennan   PART III: FORGING NEW KNOWLEDGE  The Relevance of Classical Chinese Medicine; K.Lee   Diverse Cultural Contributions to a 'Science of Religion': An Emerging Asia-Europe Dialogue on the Scientific Study of Religion; D.Wiebe   Reclaiming Tradition: Implications of a Knowledge Indigenization Perspective for Asian Education; S.Gopinathan   Southeast Asia's Indigenous Knowledge: The Conquest of the Mental Terra Incognitae; V.R.Savage