[Buddha-l] science #2

[Dan Lusthaus]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the quote from Hobson.

What has happened to the so-called history of science as studied in the west
is more or less isomorphic to the way western people have thought about
philosophy and the history of philosophy. The narrative is supposed to be it
started with the Greeks and reached us largely unsullied by those "eastern"
folks, who never really did either. There has been some minor movement in
recent decades that Indians, Chnese, etc., also did science, philosophy. It
has become a little less fashionable to think of nonwestern people as
"little brown and yellow people, representing the infancy of human culture,
awaiting the import of civilization and cocal cola from the advanced west"
(except, apparantly in Eric H's home).

Incidentally, what interested Muslims early on about India was not Buddhism
or meditation, but the Indian reputation for advanced sciences, especially
astronomy and mathematics (they swiped Indian numerals, introduced them to
the west and took credit so we still mis-label them "arabic numerals." They
swiped chemistry and algebra from China, and we in the west still use those
arabized names for those disciplines. Aside from being amused that Indians
invented the concept of zero, those of us who study Indian religious and
philosophical traditions to date for the most part usually show very little
interest or awareness of Indian scientific achievements. At least Needham,
Sivin and their ilk have made Chinese science a respectable subject of
study.

Dan