On Thursday I posted a comment in response to a response to a response by Professor Schaff. The general question was the intellectual and moral authority of science. One of the non-obvious questions raised by this exchange is what we mean by "science."
Tonight I happened to listen to a podcast of The Philosopher's Zone, an ABC (that's Australian Broadcast Corporation) production. The topic was the emergence of science. The host, Alan Saunders, interviewed Stephen Gaukroger, who has written a book on the history of science. The interview is in two parts, and I have only listened to the first, but I highly recommend it. You can download the audio at this web address. The Philosopher's Zone is by far the best podcast on philosophy that I have found. Every single episode is good.
In part one this question was raised: "why did the great scientific revolution occur in the West and not in China or the Arab-Islamic world?" But first Gaukroger had to explain what it meant to say that it arose here and not there. Rational investigation into nature certainly occurred in other parts of the world. The ancient Greeks and the ancient Chinese knew the world was round. The Medieval Islamic scholars were, for a considerable time, more advanced in science than their smelly European counterparts. What was different about the West?
Gaukroger put it this way: in those other parts of the world, scientific questions arose, were dealt with, and then the inquiry stopped. That is what happens when science is primarily a way to solve practical problems. In Europe, in the thirteenth century, a tradition began of cumulative research. Each generation of scientists built on the work of previous generations, and the process kept going. It was not at any point a practical enterprise. Only recently did Western science actually begin producing useful things. It was motivated by a desire to understand things as they are.
That tradition is what we mean by science. When we ask what authority it should have, we should remember what it is.
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