The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science

In this study Arun Bala challenges Eurocentric conceptions of the history of science by showing how Asian ideas in philosophy, mathematics, cosmology, and physics crucially shaped the birth of modern science in Europe. He traces in meticulous detail the contributions of Chinese mechanical inventions and cosmological views, Indian computational techniques and atomic hypotheses, and Arabic planetary and optical theories, as they combined with ancient Greek ideas to generate modern science. At a time when Asian cultures are seeking the secret of scientific creativity in the West, this study forces us to ask a different question: What can we discover from Asia's creative past that can point the way to its creative future?