The author James Buskett is Associate Professor of History of Science and Technology in Warwick, England. He has so far published a specialized book on skull research and ethnological studies from 1815 to 1920 as well as some articles in journals, and now would like to introduce himself to a wider audience through a non-fiction book that is easy to read and has few illustrations. “Science is not an exclusively European endeavour – and it has never been,” his statement read.
It is neither new nor original
This result is neither new nor original. The history of science can never be presented comprehensively even for a limited topic or area. Therefore, it can only submit and check snippets. It is therefore surprising that Bosquet accuses the history of science in Europe and North America of having dealt mostly with his researchers (by the way, going back to the origins of Mesopotamia…). The starting point for his critique was an arbitrary and relatively late transitional period of the “scientific revolution” in Europe. Ironically, this beginning, but also all the themes and the few details presented in the book, represent the selection and narrowing that he critiques.
One must understand his book as a politically motivated critique, worthy of the prevailing zeitgeist. Busquets clearly wants to find scientific achievements all over the planet and, if possible, their impact on European science. Switching to China, for example, is easy; It becomes more difficult with indigenous peoples. Is star navigation or the ability to orient yourself with patterns in the snow really a science? Or distinguish between beneficial and medicinal plants? Here one must talk more about culture. The author becomes pervasive when it comes to astronomical or mathematical detail—when he claims, for example, that the Nazca Lines of the Peruvian Indians served exactly the same purpose as a baseline for triangulation measurements. So what Poskett actually understands must be clarified by (natural) science.
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