The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 446 pages
• Published by: Cambridge University Press
• Edition: 2nd Edition August 18, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0521529948
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0521529945
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Review
"Huff provides a thorough, coherent hypothesis and thus helps sharpen the debates on the rise of modern science." MESA Bulletin

Product Description
Toby Huff looks at the long-standing question of why modern science arose only in the West and not in the civilizations of Islam and China, despite the fact that medieval Islam and China were more scientifically advanced. Huff explores the cultural contexts within which science was practiced in Islam, China, and the West. He finds major clues in the history of law and the European cultural revolution of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as to why the ethos of science arose in the West and permitted the breakthrough to modern science that did not occur elsewhere. First Edition Hb (1993): 0-521-43496-3 First Edition Pb (1995): 0-521-49833-3

Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West (Paperback) Huff sees science as a social practice which cannot flourish without a social niche for the person who would investigate nature, and covers a long span of history looking at the ways societies create or fail to create those social roles. I have read a good many books on this subject, and Huff's is the most fair-minded, cogent and satisfying. Recommend highly.