Book Description
Toby Huff examines the long-standing question of why modern science arose only in the West and not in the civilizations of Islam and China, despite the fact that medieval Islam and China were more scientifically advanced. Huff explores the cultural contexts within which science was practiced in Islam, China, and the West. He finds major clues in the history of law and the European cultural revolution of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as to why the ethos of science arose in the West and permitted the breakthrough to modern science that did not occur elsewhere. First Edition Hb (1993): 0-521-43496-3 First Edition Pb (1995): 0-521-49833-3
Customer Reviews:
The BEST Book Analyzing Western (Freethinking) and Sino/Islamic Prespectives Towards Science.......2005-09-25
I have read Dr. Huff's book, and also read the 1st edition. The 2nd edition is after 9/11. Dr. Huff's main thesis appeared to me very self-evident. Let's examine the crux of the case of Islam vs. Modern Science, as examined masterfully by Dr. Toby E. Huff, a Chancellor Professor of Sociology at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
Dr. Huff's latest edition, which is better referenced than his earlier (1st) edition, contains a total of NINE (9) chapters. For understanding the role of Islam in the development of Science, the casual reader at least needs to read thoroughly chapter 2 (Arabic Science and the Islamic World), chapter 3 (Reason and Rationality in Islam and the West), Chapter 5 (Madrassas, Universities and Science). These chapters help explain the most important theme: WHY ISLAM FAILED TO GIVE BIRTH TO MODERN SCIENCE, EVEN THOUGH IT HAD ONCE GENERATED THE BEST OF THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS IN SCIENCE.
The author has done a very masterful job in supporting his views by extensively citing noted researchers like Max Weber, Joseph Needham, George Makdisi, Ignaz Goldziher and others, in addition to referring to his own research papers and books about the comparative analysis of scientific development and its universal spread (globalization).
Going to chapter 5, the reader finds that the madrassas were aimed at teaching two classes of science(s),and legal systems (or jurisprudence with associated logic/analysis/metaphysics). There were "Prophetic sciences" and "foreign sciences". The former was actually based on logic systems whose boundaries were very clearly drawn: the prophetic sciences were in line with the concept of upholding "divinity" as revealed by the Quran. The foreign sciences, on the other hand, were those analytical body of knowledge that were at odds with the Quranic traditions and the theological propositions.
The bedrock reason that explains the failure of Islam to usher modern science is articulated very well by Dr. Huff in his book, page 158, that reads as follows:
"It was even essential to Islam, ..., because the 'method was part and parcel of the Islamic orthodox process for determining orthodoxy. Where it failed ws in the creation of a set of objective standards of law, against which all other laws and principles could be judged. Since the legal principles of Islamic law had been given once and for all, in the Quran and the sunna, and in the principles of fiqh worked out by al-Shafi'i, the only task left was to use logic in the narrow sense, to uncover faulty reasoning and thus preserve the doctrinal status quo...."
This explains clearly, as one finds that application "freethought" was arrested and persecuted by the dictates in the theological canons of Islam, why modern science did not take birth from the womb of Islam, but rather took firm foothold in the European rennaisance ushering the birth of quantum (wave) mechanics and modern science.
The book is a must reading simply because of sheer amount of research that has been done by Dr. Huff to explore this aspect. It would be an asset for anyone doing research and wishing to include comparative aspects of Islamic societal functions into the research.
This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED book for a serious reader.
Best on subject.......1999-01-09
Huff sees science as a social practice which cannot flourish without a social niche for the person who would investigate nature, and covers a long span of history looking at the ways societies create or fail to create those social roles. I have read a good many books on this subject, and Huff's is the most fair-minded, cogent and satisfying. Recommend highly.
Book Description
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics balances coverage of traditional topics with a global perspective on current ecological issues such as population growth, global climate change, endangered species, and the relationship between trade and the environment. Numerous examples, graphs, key terms, and end-of-chapter questions help students review and assimilate core concepts.
Book Description
In recent years, water resource management in the United States has begun a shift away from top-down, government agency-directed decision processes toward a collaborative approach of negotiation and problem solving. Rather than focusing on specific pollution sources or specific areas within a watershed, this new process considers the watershed as a whole, seeking solutions to an interrelated set of social, economic, and environmental problems. Decision making involves face-to-face negotiations among a variety of stakeholders, including federal, state, and local agencies, landowners, environmentalists, industries, and researchers.
Swimming Upstream analyzes the collaborative approach by providing a historical overview of watershed management in the United States and a normative and empirical conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating the process. The bulk of the book looks at a variety of collaborative watershed planning projects across the country. It first examines the applications of relatively short-term collaborative strategies in Oklahoma and Texas, exploring issues of trust and legitimacy. It then analyzes factors affecting the success of relatively long-term collaborative partnerships in the National Estuary Program and in 76 watersheds in Washington and California. Bringing analytical rigor to a field that has been dominated by practitioners' descriptive accounts, Swimming Upstream makes a vital contribution to public policy, public administration, and environmental management.
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Innovative Communities: People-centred Approaches to Environmental Management in the Asia-Pacific Region
Manufacturer: United Nations University Press
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ASIN: 9280811169 |
Product Description
This book introduces the concept of community innovation and illustrates its role and impact in promoting sustainability. It includes nine case studies from the Asia-Pacific region where communities are adopting innovative methods to address complex and unpredictable environmental problems and promote sustainable development. This often requires new cultures, institutions and governance structures, as well as dramatic changes in people's perceptions, attitudes, roles and behaviours.
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The Choice Modelling Approach to Environmental Evaluation (New Horizons in Environmental Economics series)
Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
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ASIN: 1840643048 |
Book Description
Choice Modelling is a technique that has recently emerged as a means of estimating the demand for environmental goods and the benefits and costs associated with them.
The aims of the book are fourfold:
• to introduce the technique in the environmental context • to demonstrate its use in a range of case studies • to provide insights into some methodological issues • to explore the prospects for the technique.
The authors contributing to the book show that Choice Modelling offers considerable potential for the evaluation of environmental goods and services. Its flexibility to cope with a wide range of applications is well demonstrated. The technique also presents numerous challenges to practitioners. A number of these are addressed in the book.
Informed and innovative, this book will prove indispensable to all scholars, researchers and practitioners in the areas of environmental studies and environmental economics.
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Liquid Assets: An Economic Approach for Water Management and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East and Beyond (RFF Press)
Franklin M. Fisher ,
Annette Huber-Lee ,
Ilan Amir ,
Shaul Arlosoroff ,
Zvi Eckstein ,
Munther J. Haddadin ,
Salem G. Hamati ,
Ammar Jarrar ,
Anan Jayyousi ,
Uri Shamir , and
Hans Wesseling
Manufacturer: RFF Press
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Determining the Economic Value of Water: Concepts and Methods (RFF Press)
ASIN: 1933115092 |
Book Description
Liquid Assets shows that the common view of water as an inevitable cause of future wars is neither rational nor necessary. Typically, two or more parties with claim to the same water sources are thought to play a zero-sum game with each side placing a high emotional and political value on the ownership of the water. However, Franklin Fisher and his coauthors demonstrate that when disputes in ownership are expressed as disputes about money values, in most cases, the benefits of ownership will be surprisingly small. By assigning an economic value to water and treating water as a tradable resource, parties see that the gains from cooperation exceed the costs resulting from the change in ownership. A zero-sum game becomes a win-win situation.
To support this new approach, Liquid Assets presents an innovative water allocation model that can be used to assist water management, the cost-benefit analysis of water infrastructure, and the resolution of disputes. The model takes system-wide effects into account and is the first to overcome the failure of actual water markets to cope with the divergence between social and private benefits (as implied by agricultural subsidies), permitting the model-user to impose his or her own values or policies.
Liquid Assets applies its methodology to Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, a region where water is scarce and water conflicts are often thought to be explosive. Indeed, Liquid Assets is the result of a joint effort of Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian, American, and Dutch experts. But the book's message and methods are not restricted to the Middle East. They are applicable to water management and water disputes around the globe.
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Assessing Natural Gas and Oil Resources: An Example of a New Approach in the Greater Green River Basin
Tom LaTourrette
Manufacturer: RAND Corporation
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ASIN: 0833033603 |
Book Description
This report presents a new approach to assessing natural gas and oil resources that is intended to help guide strategic land use planning by expanding the scope of these assessments to include eonomic and enviromental considerations.
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Ecological Sustainability And Integrity: CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES (ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY)
JOHN, ED. LEMONS
Manufacturer: Kluwer Academic Publishers
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ASIN: 0792349091 |
Book Description
Various concepts of ecological sustainability and integrity have been proposed as a means of enhancing the protection of humans and the environment against the threat of human activities. This book follows upon two earlier ones, both published by Kluwer Academic Publishers: Sustainable Development: Science, Ethics and Public Policy (John Lemons and Donald A. Brown, editors), and Perspectives on Ecological Integrity (Laura Westra and John Lemons, editors). In this present book, we bring together scholars in the fields of ecology, public policy, philosophy, and economics in order to explore more fully the concepts of sustainability and ecological integrity as well as the connections between them. First, the concept of sustainability in relation to science, law, and ethics is explored. Second, concepts of sustainability and ecological integrity are applied to problems in specific natural resources. Finally, authors examine possible approaches to public policy which might include concepts of sustainability and ecological integrity. Audience: Environmental professionals, whether academic, governmental or industrial, or in the private consulting sector. Also suitable as an upper level undergraduate or graduate text or reference.
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Economic Approaches to Natural Resources and Environmental Quality Analysis (Natural Resources and the Environment Series, V. 5)
Conference on Extended Benefit-Cost Analysis ,
Maynard M. Hufschmidt , and
Hawaii) East-West Environment and Policy Institute (Honolulu
Manufacturer: Tycooly Intl
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0907567096 |
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