Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
That is a very interesting question, although there is a converse question that might be insightful too, why hasn't China (or civilization X) reached the industrial revolution and/or the scientific/analytical/empirical culture?
I don't remember exactly the name but China had its glory scientific/economic period in a way, I don't remember the name nor the specific reasons exactly but it seems there has been a cultural shift, china entered in an era of opulance (richest country in the middle age) but of stagnation and of obscurantism, it saws a significant scientific decline because of allegedly a change of epistemological culture, IIRC induced in parts by confucianism.
Of course even in that era of decline there was some outliers but this hypothetical epistemological hibernative state china had entered was long lasting and it is an unknown how many centuries/millenias would have been needed for China to reverse from this shift, had they not met the west.
About India I know much less, India had one of the first if not the first civilization on earth, the indus valley,
possibly the first well thought city architecture, and one of the first proto-written language (but maybe not an actual language),
that civilization mysteriously disappeared.
Then much later, they were populated by a mysterious central asian "empire" that has from ethnic origin "europe" and spoke a lost indo-european language, therefore that would make Indians much more ethnically or culturally european than the Chinese but no idea how much it diluted or lasted.
Another interesting question is, would have europe developed the industrial revolution without the technological transfer it received from China and the middle-east?
e.g. has Guttemberg been influenced by Chinese press/paper technologies?
has the import of explosive powder influenced research and conceptions about the sources of energies?
etc
IIRC the excellent book The Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism shows that China influenced or brought the compass to Europe, which is key for navigation.
I believe those imports of non-western technologies have had a major impact and probably, a necessary impact.
one could speculate on IQ/racial theories but I doubt that is necessary, it might have given an edge to europeans but even so it's not studied enough today, e.g. chinese people have generally high IQ so we would need another more selective metric of cognitive abilities to diffferentiate an ability to innovate.
Genes that drive a tendency towars anti-conformism, a rejection of authority, and a megalomanism seems key to scientific disruptors.
Let's not forget that access to food also is a big factor.
But the main drive was not racially based but cultural and institutional/organizational.
The rise of early proto-capitalism/access to private funding for research has been a key driver.
IMHO it was not a given that the european would be the firsts since it seems catholicism was actively and potently obscurantist.
another question is about the blockers of past civilizations, for example it is notorious that a Roman centurion implied that Rome was not actively funding the building of engineering machines because he was afraid it would drive a tremendous rise in unemployement..
Of course one should not forget about the economic and energetic multiplier that are slaves.
The Industrial Revolution happened in Britain specifically, and not other parts of Europe, because the precursor technologies were in place to deploy a steam engine at the same time as a real demand for the steam engine(draining coal mines) while a high cost of labor and lack of slavery made conventional means of doing so expensive enough for real demand for a replacement.
The alternate universe where China developed the Industrial Revolution before Britain is one where the cost of labor skyrockets and stays high, while the Chinese invest in researching technologies that precede the steam engine(mostly making better cannon), while switching en masse to the use of coal for fuel.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link