Answer to Question #260810 in History for Bae

Question

What is reason why Scientific invention were concentrated in the Western Countries particularly in the countries of Europe?

Answer 1

The Greeks, in particular, were among the first to think in a non-holistic manner, decoupling things from their surroundings and analyzing them in isolation. In modern engineering, for example, if you wish to analyze a phenomenon about which you know nothing, you first characterize it as a product of independent one-variable functions, which you then analyze separately. As it turns out, everything is connected, so Asians and others were in principle correct in taking a holistic view, but the relative levels of influence, amplitudes, and other characteristics of different factors are disproportionate, and thus the Greek approach was an absolutely necessary intermediate step, even if it was only approximate, to launch scientific progress. Although Western thought is rediscovering the value of holism and the inherent limitations of analysis by breakdown and reduction to individual components, the intermediate methodology of analysis of phenomena components on their own was a necessary step that few non-Europeans took - because they knew it was wrong.