7 - The New World, global science, and Eurocentrism

Summary

‘The beginnings of global science occurred during the period of the rise of a global economy. Surely that was no coincidence’.

Abstract

The seventh and final chapter offers some reflections on the relations between the Spanish imperial endeavors of the 16^th century and the history of Western science. The problem of knowledge, like that of control from a distance, is fundamentally a problem of communication, and, by the same token, of the processes of compiling, organizing, and systematizing information. The institutions and supply centers that were created in Spain in the course of the 16^th century, such as the Casa de Contratacion of Seville and the Consejo de Indies, had a definitive role in the construction of a new world order and a new technical and scientific horizon.

Key words: New World, Eurocentrism, Long Distance Control, Western Science, Standardization, 16^th century

Plus ultra

For the frontispiece of his Instauratio Magna (London, 1620), Francis Bacon chose the picture of a ship returning from the Atlantic and crossing the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, a symbolic representation of going beyond the limits of what medieval Europe regarded as the known world. At the bottom of the illustration, the phrase ‘Multi pertransibunt and augebitur Scientia’ stood out, a quotation from the Biblical Book of Daniel (12:4), which means ‘many shall run to and for, and knowledge shall increase’. The choice of this saying from the Bible seemed highly appropriate as a motto for his great work of philosophy, which dealt with the foundations of a new and powerful science since, by means of science, it would be possible ‘to extend human power over the universe’ in a new world in which ‘nothing will be impossible for mankind’. Those powerful galleons are the emblem of the power of human arts and that picture clearly represents the English philosopher's view of the sixteenth-century voyages of exploration and their relation to the history of modern science. The idea of associating the increase of knowledge with voyages and the exploration of the unknown perfectly complemented Bacon's philosophical approach to science because, from his standpoint, the advance of knowledge was the result of new experiences.