A common mistake people have about the nature of scientific discovery is that it is often mere chance that a particular person or laboratory or nation or even an entire culture makes a scientific advance. Penicillin was discovered, in this theory, by a chance examination of a particular mold. Kekule discovered the structure of the benzene ring because he dreamt of a snake biting its own tail. Yet none of these discoveries would have been made if the scientists did not already have a "prepared" mind that was ready to recognize possible solutions to problems when they see them. This "prepared" mind is what Dr. Eastwood is studying. In his case, though, he is examining not the preparation of a single scientist like Kekule but an entire culture. He is looking at nothing less than the critical issue of why science rose in the West rather than in other cultures. After all, in the Middle Ages, China, India, and the Muslim countries of the Middle East were far, far more advanced than the cultures of Europe. Indeed, it was only because the Middle Eastern and Northern African countries passed on to Europe the science that they had received and developed from the Greeks that Western Europe was even set on the track to develop modern science. Yet as Dr. Eastwood points out, just like Kekule, the Western world had to be prepared to receive and work with the materials they were given from the Middle East and Africa. What about Western culture led the scholars to accept this science and transform it to make what is modern science? Clearly it was not the materials alone that caused this. If the knowledge the West received from Arab scholars automatically led to modern science, then why didn't the Arabs make the transformation? Dr. Eastwood is examining in the context of mathematical astronomy how Europe was both well-prepared and had internally developed motives to pursue Arabic mathematical astronomy. This motivation led the West not only to take what the Arabs gave them but transform it into, fir st, the Newtonian and, ultimately, the Einsteinian world views. Thus, this study promises to address the central question in the culture of science: what is it about Western Civilization that leads to the rise of science and technology. Dr. Eastwood will not provide the definitive answer, but he will surely provide a part of it.
