David Pingree Memorial Seminar: Empires and Exact Sciences in Pre-Modern Eurasia

29-30 May 2006

Historians of science devote great attention to the
imposition and reception of modern scientific theories
in colonial societies. Typical themes include the ways
science was used rhetorically and politically to
maintain the superiority of the colonizers, and
strategies of rejection and appropriation by the
colonized. Important as they are, these topics can give
the misleading impression that encounters with alien
science were strictly a phenomenon of modern global
imperialism. In fact, political expansion and exposure
to new cultures have been reflected in changing
scientific traditions since antiquity, including the
spread of Graeco-Roman dominance into the Near
East and North Africa, and the subsequent merging of
many former territories of the Roman Empire, along
with parts of Iranian, Indian, and Chinese cultures,
into the growing realm of Islam. This seminar will
address the explicit recognition and assimilation
(or modification) of ‘foreign’ elements in the exact
sciences, changes within existing scientific traditions
in imitation of foreign texts and practices.

Date(s):	29-30 May 2006
Location:	Leiden
Address:	Leiden University Council Room Academy Building, Rapenburg 73 (Botanical Gardens entrance) Leiden
Website:	http://www.iias.nl/iias/show/id=55709

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