Is Science Western in Origin Preview - CK Raju

Preview page 6 of 16form part of any science. 1He presupposes that (a) deduction is more important toscience than observation or experiment (which leads to mere“rules”), and that (b) only the Greek “race” had deduction.Needham avoids the racist part of the explanation; butlapses into an otherwise similar view about Chinese “landsurveying”versus Euclidean geometry. 2Unlike political history, it is hard to counter or even explainthe biases in the history of science. “Information poverty” isa consequence of industrial capitalism—even otherwiseeducatedpeople are often scientifically illiterate. Like otherilliterates, they uncritically accept and repeat stories fromsocially “authoritative” sources. Scientists, too, may not beknowledgeable enough, for in practice they rely heavily onauthority (again because industrial capitalism breedsexcessive specialization). Moreover, scientists focus ontechnique, and carelessly propagate any given history.Consequently, very few can put science together with itshistory and philosophy and build a counter-story. India is aparticularly pathetic case: it has no university department ofhistory and philosophy of science, even 60 years afterindependence. No wonder, the same old story isperpetuated by current Indian school texts, 3 which mentionmany Greek names as the originators of mathematics andscience. These Greek names are accompanied by images ofCaucasian stereotypes. Children get the underlying racistmessage!This history was contested during the NDA-led regime, 4 butwith such extreme counter-biases that there was a storm of