Change the Eurocentric account on the history of science – why multiculturalism is important

In the 11th century in Cairo, the foundations of modern science were laid down by the detention of an innocent man.

The mathematician Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham had been responsible for regulating the flow of the Nile, but when he saw the river which had shaped 4000 years of human civilization, the pride of the task has become too obvious.

To avoid the anger of the Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, Ibn al-Haytham Blowing feigned madly And was placed under house arrest, giving it time to focus on the optics.

In doing so, He has developed a scientific method Based on controlled and reproducible controlled experiences and mathematics. It wouldn’t only change Understanding the humanity of optics and the way our eyes really seeBut later jet the foundations of empirical science in Europe.

When I started to teach the history of biology, the importance of this central period of scientific history has often decreased in the Western analysis of scientific history. The study of the contributions of non -Western researchers showed me what history can teach us about the value of multiculturalism.

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A Eurocentric version of history

The story generally told in the West Has science been invented in ancient Greece, then, after a millennium of intellectual darkness, developed in Western Europe in the past 500 years.

Other cultures could have contributed an intelligent tip here and there, like inventing paper or create our Modern numbers systemBut science as we know has been developed almost entirely by white men. As such, it becomes a story of superiority, which requires gratitude.

The scars of this way of thinking are everywhere in our geopolitical landscape. He shapes how many Western leaders interact with other cultures, apparently allowing them to share their intellectual authority without having to listen to others. It is a state of mind that lowers other civilizations and has led to centuries of colonial violence.

This Eurocentric version of scientific history omits some of the most important events that Modern thought shaped. Science was not so much developed by individuals but by a very complex global process which has gathered ideas, experiences and approaches experienced by all the main civilizations.

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The former Greek purse, for example, has indeed played a decisive role in the development of sciences, but it was Not intrinsically Western. The Greek Empire lasted a large part of the Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. The researchers have traveled a lot and the scholarship centers Driven over the time of Ionia in current Türkiye, for example, in Athens in Alexandria in Egypt.

Greek natural philosophy was influenced by the mathematical And astronomical achievements of Babylonians and medical traditions of Egyptian. Later, the Alexandrians scholars made great advances in human anatomy when they overcome the Greek aversion to dissections, probably because of Egyptian influences. Natural philosophy was born from the merger of these learned traditions.

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Importance of testing ideas

Likewise, Ibn al-Haytham was one of the thousands of researchers who, during The golden age of Islamwere engaged in the immense task of translating, combining and developing the knowledge of the world in great encyclopedic texts. They admired Indian and Chinese scholarships and technology, but venerated the ancient Greeks.

While the Greeks had great great minds, They had largely avoided the idea of ​​experiences And believed that the development of instruments was the work of slaves.

Many Arab researchers, on the other hand, stressed the importance of testing ideas experimentally and developing scientific and surgical instruments that allowed significant advances.

We can say that Arab researchers have built the foundations of modern science by developing a method of controlled experimentation and application to a Greek scholarship combined with knowledge and technologies of all accessible parts of the world.

Later, the Latin translations of the Arabic texts would allow Science to grow in the West intellectual ashes of medieval Catholicism. Texts like Ibn Sina Qānūn fī al-ṭibb (Canon of Medicine) would become standard textbooks throughout Europe for hundreds of years.

Ibn al-Haytham inspired scholars like Roger Bacon to work on the European implementation of the scientific method. This would ultimately lead to the scientific revolution of Europe.

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Importance of intercultural exchange

Great civilizations existed All over the world at the beginning of the 16th century, in Africa, in the Middle East, in the Americas and in East Asia. Most had a scholarship It was greater than that of the West in at least certain respects. You can say that the most precious thing that Europeans took the rest of the world was knowledge.

The first vaccine, for example, was based on variolation techniques Developed in China, India and the Islamic world. People have been inoculated against the smallpox by blowing up powder crusts in the nose or rubbing the pus in shallow cups.

Europeans thought illnesses were caused by bad air (Miasmus) And he therefore did not trust this technique. It only spread in Europe and North America after The English aristocrat Lady Montagu saw its first -hand effectiveness in Constantinople at the beginning of the 18th century And recommend that it be tested in England.

A vaccine developed by the English doctor Edward Jenner 80 years later was simply the well -known variolation technique made much safer By inoculating with the cowpox instead.

The importance of intercultural exchanges should not be surprising. Scientific data and observations are ideally objective, but the questions we ask and the conclusions we draw will always be subjective, shaped by our knowledge, our beliefs and our previous past experiences. Different cultures can help each other beyond their inherent biases and grow beyond the intellectual constraints of individual approaches.

In his book, Sweet grass braidingThe botanist and writer of Potawatomi Robin Wall Kimmerr gives a good example in the context of the way in which indigenous approaches can inform modern science.

One of the biggest gifts in Canada is our diversity. Here, cultures from around the world come together, forming a multiplicity of mind which is well positioned to solve the problems of our world. However, this has only value if we can connect and learn from each other. When we plead for a diversity of ideas in the study programs, on a national and abroad, we promote a future built on the knowledge of people and cultures around the world.

There is nothing more intimately personal than thoughts in your head, and yet you have not designed them. They are a continuation of knowledge and ideas which, for thousands of years, have traveled the globe, shaped by countless spirits of all civilizations. In a growing division period, it is a thought that should bring us together.