The rise of early modern science : Islam, China, and the West / Toby E. Huff.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 385-406) and index.

Introduction -- 1. The comparative study of science -- 2. Arabic science and the Islamic world -- 3. Reason and rationality in Islam and the West -- 4. The European legal revolution -- 5. Madrasas, universities, and sciences -- 6. Cultural climates and the ethos of science -- 7. Science and civilization in China -- 8. Science and social organization in China -- 9. The rise of early modern science -- Epilogue: Educational reform and attitudes towards science since the eighteenth century.

Publisher's description: This study 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. To explain this outcome, Tony E. Huff explores the cultural - religious, legal, philosophical, and institutional - contexts within which science was practiced in Islam, China, and the West. He finds in the history of law and the European cultural revolution of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries major clues as to why the ethos of science arose in the West, permitting the breakthrough to modern science that did not occur elsewhere. This line of inquiry leads to novel ideas about the centrality of the legal concept of corporation, which is unique to the West and gave rise to the concepts of neutral space and free inquiry.

Local access dig.pdf. [Huff-Early Modern Science.pdf]