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Article ID: CBB000470672

The Birth of Modern Science: Culture, Mentalities and Scientific Innovation (2004)

Brennan, Andrew (Author)

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Volume: 35
Pages: 199--225

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In a recent paper, Luc Faucher and others have argued for the existence of deep cultural differences between `Chinese' and `East Asian' ways of understanding the world and those of `ancient Greeks' and `Americans'. Rejecting Alison Gopnik's speculation that the development of modern science was driven by the increasing availability of leisure and information in the late Renaissance, they claim instead---following Richard Nisbett---that the birth of mathematical science was aided by `Greek', or `Western', cultural norms that encouraged analytic, abstract and rational theorizing. They argue that `Chinese' and `East Asian' cultural norms favoured, by contrast, holistic, concrete and dialectical modes of thinking. After clarifying some of the things that can be meant by `culture' and `mentality', the present paper shows that Faucher and his colleagues make a number of appeals---to the authority of comparative studies and history of science, to the psychological studies of Nisbett and his colleagues, and to a hidden assumption of strong cultural continuity in the West. I

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Description On recent debates over source of the differences between Eastern and Western cultures with respect to the rise of modern science. Discusses Luc Faucher's claims as they counter Alison Gopnik's.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000470672/

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