Asia in the Making of the European Renaissance: Implications for History of Science

Arun Bala

Visiting Professor

Department of Philosophy

University of Toronto

Visiting Senior Research Fellow

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

Singapore

There is an intercultural dimension which gets overlooked when the European Renaissance is treated simply as the outcome of the rebirth of ancient European Greek science and philosophy in modern Europe. The period of the European Renaissance was also the time when Arabic scientific and philosophical traditions from Iberian territories in Western Europe under Muslim rule, and Chinese technologies from parts of Eastern Europe under Mongol influence, met in Middle Europe sandwiched at the center. This paper argues that the potent combination of these two cultural influences also constituted a major context for the European Renaissance and its influence upon the birth of modern science in Europe.

Selected Publication: The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science. Palgrave Macmillan (2006)