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Course Objective |
The aim of this course is to examine the historical development of world culture and science, beginning with the early cultural achievements that emerged in Mesopotamia, Eurasia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, and continuing through the civilisations of Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamic world and Europe. |
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Course Content
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The concepts of science, culture, and civilization; scientific developments in the earliest centers of civilization: Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent, and Egypt; traditions of knowledge and thought in the civilizations of India, Iran, and Central Asia, The formation of the understanding of philosophy, science, and education in Ancient Greece, the Hellenistic period and the dissemination of the scientific legacy, science, law, and institutional structure in Roman civilization, the intellectual framework and scientific stagnation in Medieval Europe, the preservation of ancient works and translation movements into Arabic, scientific institutions in Islamic civilization: the House of Wisdom, madrasas, and Beytülhikme, Studies in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and philosophy in the Arab-Turkic-Persian world; the contributions of Islamic scholars to the history of science; the transmission of scientific knowledge to Europe via Al-Andalus and Sicily; the development of European universities and the influence of Islamic educational institutions; the Renaissance, the modern understanding of science, and the Western-centered scientific transformation; the balance of scientific power in the modern era: Europe, America, Russia, and China, a historical assessment of the relationship between science and civilization, and a general discussion.
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