Is There One Science, Western Science?

1. Introduction

The period known as the Renaissance, brought with it a paradigm shift on perceptions of causality and to how phenomenon was viewed. It was this European Enlightenment that radically departed from the traditional religious metaphysical views of cause to one which relied on rationality and the empirical as the foundation of cause. This approach was more useful to practical everyday life than the traditional metaphysical way of thinking. The empirical way of explaining phenomena, events and observations expressed in quantitative measurement, offered more readily acceptable explanation of cause than the traditional metaphysical way of thinking employed up to this time. It was this new Western Europe empiricism with its accompanying technological advances such as inter alia, transport mediums and weaponry that facilitated the conquests and expansion of the West to the rest of the globe. This expansion was made possible due to the new intellectual principles of empirical observation and critical reasoning of this new Enlightenment era and nations and societies that did not conform to these new cognitive principles were viewed as intellectually backward. This accordingly led to the Western perceptions of African thought as being primitive and pre-logical as opposed to the modern Western manner of thought that was founded on reason and scientific empiricism, and therefore irrational. In this essay this viewpoint will investigated and the validity thereof evaluated in order to respond to the assignment question.

2. Background

Humanity has an entrenched desire for the attainment of knowledge. Wisdom can therefore not be the exclusive property of the any culture and for any grouping to claim exclusivity to such would be...

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...). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Keita, L. 2007. Horton Revisited: African Traditional Thought and Western Science. Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 32(4), pp20-34. [Online]. Available: http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?page=recherche&recherche=Keita%2C+L.+2007.+Horton+Revisited%3A+African+Traditional+Thought+and+Western+Science.+Africa+Development%3A+A+Quarterly+Journal+of+the+Council+for+the+Development+of+Social+Science+Research+in+Africa%2C+32%284%29%2C+pp20-34. [2014 February 25]

Okere, T. 2005. Is there one science, western science? Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 30(3), pp20-34.

University of South Africa. Department of Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology. Tutorial for PLS3703. Pretoria.