We are reading Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud by Peter Watson.
This week, we read chapter 14: China's scholar-elite, Lixue, and the culture of the brush
This book will take us about a year, at a chapter a week. Also, the chapters can more or less be read independently.
I leave this diary on my hotlist all week, so, feel free to comment anytime.
88kathy suggested
You could start the diary with a boilerplate explanation and then a few questions that might make the diary easier to write.
so I'll do that. The "boilerplate" will be from the table of contents Watson provides, and then the questions will be from my head. Thanks Kathy!
That seemed to work OK last we, so I will do it again
Here goes:
From the Table of Contents
Chapter 15: The idea of Europe
Muslim visions of European backwardness in the middle ages
Theories as to why Europe drew ahead
Braudel (geography)
McCormick's Medieval Europe
Abu-Lughod (the plague, politics, Asia fell behind)
Needham (China's class structure)
Western and eastern scholarship compared
North and Thomas (changes in agriculture, economics, and market structure)
Southern (changes in Christianity)
Gratian's changes in law
Grossteste promotes the experimental approach
Aquinas imagines the secular
Morris (the discovery of the individual)
To me, this was the most fascinating chapter so far. It looks at a very interesting question. In 1000 AD, Europe was a backwater - it was poor, underpopulated, illiterate; its contributions to science were negligible. In 1500, on the other hand, none of the above was true anly longer, and Europe was already becoming dominant. What happened?
There are many theories, and I don't see why they can't all be at least partly true. None seem to contradict the others, except that each says THIS is the reason.
Some notes and thoughts:
p 320 - Braudel claims the reason is geography, including the presence of three huge river systems in middle and northern Europe (Rhine, Danube, Rhone/Saone).
p 321 - McCormick claims the change started earlier than 1000.
p 322 - Abu-Lughold thinks the key was that Asian trade and economics declined
p 323 - Needham claims that the stirrup and the gun unified Europe, which had been disjointed. The stirrup brought on feudalism, the gun ended it.
p 324 several authors explicate differences in scholarship between east and west.
p. 325 North-Thomas claims that Europe became "full" of people before Asia did.
p 326 - the idea is raised that it was Christianity that unified Europe, along with Latin and the Church bureaucracy.
p 328 - Gratian says that the laws became unified across Europe
p 329 - Grossteste argues that the scientific method was key
p 330 - Aquimas raised the possibility of secular study, leading to the need to understand the scriptures and the world, which led to science becoming paramount.
But to me, the unifying theme is the one supplied at the end of the chapter - the discovery of the individual.