Bright Dark Ages

Arun Bala (Ph.D. 1983) is a physicist and philosopher of science who has published numerous studies on globalising history and philosophy of The Scientific Revolution. He is author of The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science and edited Asia, Europe and the Emergence of Modern Science: Knowledge Crossing Boundaries. Prasenjit Duara, Director of Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore and Emeritus Professor, University of Chicago. Among other books he is author of Culture, Power, and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942 (1988), which won the Fairbank Prize (American Historical Association) and Levenson Prize (Association for Asian Studies, USA).

• Acknowledgements List of Contributors Introduction Arun Bala and Prasenjit Duara 1 The Descent of Theory Andrew Brennan and Norva Y.S. Lo 2 Philosophical Implications of Connective Histories of Science Sundar Sarukkai 3 Kuhn, Nisbett, Thought Experiments, and the Needham Question James Robert Brown 4 Anthropocosmic Processes in the Anthropocene: Revisiting Quantum Mechanics vs. Chinese Cosmology Comparison Geir Sigurðsson 5 Ibn al-Haytham and the Experimental Method Cecilia Wee 6 Averroes and the Development of a Late Medieval Mechanical Philosophy Henrik Lagerlund 7 Barbarous Algebra, Inferred Axioms: Indic Rhythms and Echoes in the Rise of Western Exact Science Roddam Narasimha 8 The Transfer of Geographic Knowledge of Afro-Eurasia in the “Bright” Middle Ages: Cases of Late Medieval European Maps of the World Hyunhee Park 9 Jamu: The Indigenous Medical Arts of the Indonesian Archipelago Hans Pols 10 From Zero to Infinity: The Indian Legacy of the Bright Dark Ages George Gheverghese Joseph 11 The Needham Question and Southeast Asia: Comparative and Connective Perspectives Arun Bala 12 Rethinking the Needham Question: Why Should Islamic Civilization Give Rise to the Scientific Revolution? Mohd. Hazim Shah 13 The Greatest Mistake: Teleology, Anthropomorphism, and the Rise of Science Franklin Perkins 14 Rescuing Science from Civilisation: On Joseph Needham’s “Asiatic Mode of (Knowledge) Production” Kapil Raj Index of Names Index of Subjects