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by B. Bansal (Author)
This book courageously takes a direct aim at the conventional view of the birth and evolution of science: the presumption of Ancient Greece as birth place of science, undermining the critical role played by Indian and Chinese civilizations, confining the role of Muslim civilization to merely keeping science alive for a convenient hand off to Europe when it woke up from its millennium-long slumber to continue the scientific project through Italian renaissance, reformation of Christianity, scientific revolution, enlightenment and industrial and post-industrial revolutions. It proposes a fixed yet flexible inner nature of the species and a stable yet dynamic inner nature of social orders. Using these foundations, it employs the institutional model to expertly narrate the intertwined story of civilizations and science through the standalone, peaceful and the violent interaction eras over last 8500 years. It challenges not only the conventional history of science but also challenges the comparative history of civilizations since the work considers science as the highest form of Homo sapiens creativity. The book answers the following key questions concerning science: How practical, religious and intellectual creativity influenced its birth and evolution? How standalone, peaceful and violent interaction eras impacted its birth and evolution? How conflict among Civilizations and nomads impacted its birth and evolution? Which civilizations and nomadic formations have been critical to its birth and evolution? The book also examines and answers the following more specific questions: Why did leadership in science pass from one civilization to another multiple times in history? Why one civilization alone has been responsible for maturation of science? What was the fallacy of Marxism in explaining the social evolution of the species? What role did peaceful Trade and migrations play in the evolution of science? How empire building, violent colonization and imperial wealth drain are different and alike? What role did science religion conflict play in the evolution of science? What role did practical inventions play in the birth and evolution of science? Why Homo sapiens are not destined to engage in war forever? How Humanity will craft a stable social order while retaining dynamism of capitalism? Using an analytical, quantitative and testable approach, The Birth and Evolution of Science answers all these questions and more ( for example, how policies of last significant Mogul emperor impacted American and Industrial Revolutions, who invented calculus and whether art is a pre-requisite to science). It thus uses scientific method itself to study the forces that have determined history of science. It highlights why and when science was supported, why it was suppressed, why it was adopted and why it was promoted in history. The author does not simply examine the intellectual history of civilizations as most books on the subject do; he outlines the reciprocal impact of the productive, creative, constructive and destructive outcomes of key civilizations and nomads in rationalizing the evolution of science through seven distinct, historically observable phases. Visit: www.baeos.com
Author Biography
Author received his undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology. New Delhi and subsequently earned M.A. Sc. from University of Waterloo, Ph. D. from Clarkson University, all in engineering and an MBA from Syracuse University. He worked for Corning Inc. in research, manufacturing, engineering, product development, planning and marketing for 30 years. Always interested in history, author developed a passion for understanding the evolution of science in different civilizations. His researches led him to the belief that history of science as taught today needs significant revision as it understandably reflects the perspective of a single civilization, a civilization nonetheless responsible for the final maturation of science over last several centuries. The book, which took seven years to complete, is a reflection of his passion for the subject.
