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June 8, 2003
"Measure of Reality" Alfred W. Crosby
For any of you interested in History of Science and its impact on society, this is a must read.
The Measure of Reality explores another angle of the "Guns, Germs and Steel" line of investigation. Namely, the origins of why did the West, a crude, backwater region; evolve to its significant role in the modern world. Crosby postulates that a shift of Western mindset from qualitative to quantitative thinking, from 1250 - 1600, triggered this power shift.
He provides fascinating detail on many, varied topics such as the development of quantitative music notation (required to perform complex, polyphonic music) and the adoption of double entry bookkeeping. This last required the adoption of “Arabic” numerals before being feasible. Think about a ledger kept in Roman numerals.
There is much discussion about the adoption of the clock, too, which went from “mainframe” to “mini” to “personal” in about the same number of decades as the computer. The clock fostered early, mass awareness of quantity.
Money also catalyzed this process, as Europe converted from barter to a cash economy. Europe was fragmented into many small political entities, each with its own currency. Currency conversion was a major quantification exercise, spurring adoption of both Arabic numerals and eventually decimal notation. Again, consider the chore of doing this with Roman numerals and fractions.
So, if you read this book, you will acquire lots of terrific cocktail party chatterbits like the origin of the word “quintessence”. It is also a very thoughtful study on some of the intellectual origins of our modern society.
Posted by mvestrich at 9:48 PM
to Non-fiction, Science
