To what extent is the appropriation of the 'scientific method' by the West justified?

by [deleted]

I understand the question might seem vague.

But in the context of Islamic sciences and to a lesser extent, Chinese and Indian sciences, have there been instances where an objective scientific method is upheld as a means to valid knowledge? Is the enterprise of scientific understanding a Eurocentric one or something universal which just happened to be accepted on a wide-scale in Europe due to historical circumstance?

I'm looking at 'scientific method' in the broad sense of the term. It could also apply to the social sciences. Al-Biruni's work on India for example has a distant, sober, scholarly approach in which the object of knowledge is the thing-in-itself, i.e. the knowledge is not (explicitly) instrumental. To what extent had this approach been influenced by the Ancient Greek's love of theory (for itself) or to what extent was it an indigenous Islamic 'method'?

I know there are a lot of questions jumbled up in there. But, if it helps, I'm thinking of this question in the context of Heidegger's declaration of 'Europeanization of the Earth.'

thanks a lot.

ctesibius

"Scientific method" can be taken to mean different things, but the definition usual in history of science has roughly these features:

  1. Form a theory about how something works, based on observation. For instance "Animals get ill even if they are not exposed to miasma. Therefore I believe that disease is transmitted by small seed-like particles, which I will call germs, rather than by foul smells".
  2. Form a prediction from the theory "Therefore if I take blood from an infected animal and introduce it into an uninfected animal which is not within reach of smell, it will succumb to the disease".
  3. Perform an experiment to test the predictin.
  4. Compare the result of the experiment with the prediction.
  5. Revise the theory
  6. Go to 2

This closed loop structure is one of the main distinguishing factors between Western science and precursors such as Greek or Islamic work. Observation and forming a theory from the observation is not enough: you have to predict, experiment, and verify. One of the main reasons that this took off in England was the Royal Society, which insisted on papers being presented in this form.