the rise of early modern science- book review
TRANSCRIPT
The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West
By Toby E. Huff, Cambridge University Press, 1993
Book Review
The question of why “modern science” emerged only in west has long been debated.
Although the Islamic and Chinese civilizations had far exceeded the west with technological and
scientific advances up through the fourteenth century it failed to progress after that point. In The
Rise of Early modern Science: Islam, China, and the West Sociologist Toby Huff explores the
reasons for the rise of modern science in the West while analyzing the lack of progress in Islamic
and Chinese civilizations. Huff stresses that the underlying cultural values and legal systems of
each of these civilizations give the impetus to inhibit or encourage scientific advancement.
Huff breaks down each civilization from their view of science and technology to the social
and cultural mores needed for the growth of scientific inquiry. He discusses the “problem” of
Arabic science as being two dimensional, first the failure to give birth to modern science and
second the decline of scientific thought.1 He surmises that the factors which hold responsibility
for the decline to be both political tyranny and religious orthodoxy. Huff sees the religious and
legal doctrines as being the impetus for growth or decline of intellectual progress. “In the case of
Arabic-Islamic civilization, the architects of both law and theology tightly circumscribed the
rational capacities of man.”2
The author sees the problem of Chinese progression in the sciences being caused by the
nature of the cultural and institutional foundations as inhibiting to the “development of original
thought”. Chinese thought revolved around the institutions of Confucian philosophy and the
greater good of revering and respecting the past. This viewpoint would add to the stagnation the
growth of scientific thought.
Huff discusses the corporate and legal institutions of Europe and considers the “legal
revolution” as the primary player in the growth of scientific inquiry. He states that Islamic law
1 Toby E. Huff, The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 472 Ibid,. 116
set limits on education which stifled the development of scientific thought.3 “The legal and
institutional arrangements of China…suggest that there were no official efforts to encourage
autonomy of thought or action.”4 Yet the recovery of Roman legal thought, the reemergence of
Greek philosophy would open the door to scientific inquiry within the Western sphere. The
founding of new institutions of learning would encourage a new logic which included such
elements as an integrated body of knowledge, systematic explained of operations, knowledge
acquired by a combination of observation, hypothesis, verification and experimentation.5
Huff’s comparison give a clear view of the historical roots of natural philosophy and the
educational systems of Europe, the Islamic civilization and Confucian China but does not give a
clear picture of the application of the how they gained or utilized this knowledge.6 His research
is solid he as his sources range from Said Nasr’s Science and Civilization in Islam to Joseph
Ben-David’s work The Scientific Role: The Conditions of its Establishment in Europe yet his
thesis falls short of its promise by not giving concrete evidence to support it. Gray Dorsey in his
review states that Huff‘s use “of the same structure of inquiry” for all three civilizations is not
appropriate given the different natures of belief and inquiry in each given culture.7
While Huff expand on the works of Max Weber and Thomas Kuhn, rather than exploring the
historical significance he is exploring the sociological dynamics of each culture and evaluating
what causes were behind the retreat of all but European progress for scientific inquiry. His
argument that Islamic society was unable to reconcile rational inquiry with its faith is too simple.
If the theology of Islam stunted scientific inquiry and Chinese commitment to the past spurred
3 Ibid,. 2314 Ibid,. 2855 Ibid,. 1296 Benjamin A. Elman. The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 100 No. 3 (Nov 1994). p817-819 Jstor accessed 1/15/20117 Gray Dorsey. Society 32, No 3 (1995) 84-86. EBSCO Host Accessed 1/14/2011
the decline in mathematic progress then why were Islamic and Chinese sciences so advanced
before the end of the fourteenth century? He leaves this question unanswered. So although
Huff’s work is impressive in its coverage of primary and secondary sources there remains a hint
cultural superiority which impedes a clear prognosis.8,9
The author has structured his book by revolving between the three cultures by reviewing
colleges, universities, law, inquiry, theology, and authority chapter by chapter. It is often
repetitive as he restates points made in previous chapters.10
Toby Huff is a sociologist who with his interest in Islamic Science has approached the history
of science and its development from a historical perspective. He has published two major works,
the first being reviewed here and the second being Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific
Revolution (2010). 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.
In the context of trying to understand the beginnings of modern science, Huff’s book does an
excellent job of contributing to the existing historiography. In his research he combines a half
century of inquiry which with its comprehensiveness has the consequence of noting the fallacies
of previous arguments on the subject. Yet the problem lies in the point that he does not
demonstrate the exact cultural relationship between modern science and the west. He misses the
complexity of the issue by generalizing the cultural aspect of scientific inquiry. So we lose the
distinctions among the scientific activities themselves and making it difficult to come to any firm
conclusion as to why during certain periods things such as medicine advanced while
8 Scott B. Noegal. Digest of Middle Eastern Studies 5/2 (1996), 72-76 Accessed 1/14/20119 Babak Nahid, Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 25(1995) Accessed 1/15/2011 http://escholarship.org/uc/item/44z102r6 10 Sal Restivo, Social Forces 75, No.1 (1996) 364-365 EBSCOhost accessed 1/12/2011
mathematics declined. This book does bring to the forefront the importance of understanding a
true understanding of Western science is not possible without an understanding of Islamic and
Chinese science. This book would be excellent reference material for further research about the
emergence of modern science and a good read for anyone interested in the intersection of science
within the three different cultures.
Bibliography
Ben-David, “The Scientific Role: The Conditions of its Establishment in Europe” Minerva 4, 15- 54, 1965
Cohen, H. Floris, The Scientific Revolution: A Historical Inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994
Huff, Toby E., The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993