This essay engages with some of the central arguments presented in the essay by Reviel Netz. The intention is not to disagree with his arguments but to raise an additional set of questions and salient concerns. The first section discusses the importance of an iterative praxis in the transformation of scientific or mathematical concepts within a school or tradition. In a subsequent section, this is linked with the interpretation of classical texts and the possible sources of anachronism. The essay discusses the multiplicity of genealogies of mathematics and the exact sciences in order to foreground other possible traditions and styles and their role in constituting the identity of the exact sciences. Similarly, the essay closes with a brief discussion of the consequences of recent studies on South Asian history in order to pluralize the narratives of the origins of the exact and modern sciences.
NarasimhaRoddam.2003. “Axiomatism and Computational Positivism: Two Mathematical Cultures in Pursuit of Exact Sciences’, Economic and Political Weekly. ” Economic and Political Weekly 30: 3650–3656.
15.
NarasimhaRoddam.2007. “Epistemology and Language in Indian Astronomy and Mathematics. ” Journal of Indian Philosophy 35: 521–541.
16.
NetzReviel.2022. “The place of Archimedes in world history.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 47.3-4, 301–330. doi: 10.1080/03080188.2022.2109100.
17.
PetitjeanPatrick.1999. “
Needham, Anglo-French Civilities and Ecumenical Science. ” In Situating the History of Science: Dialogues with Joseph Needham , edited by Irfan HabibS., and RainaDhruv, 152–197. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
18.
PingreeDavid.1992. “Hellenophilia Versus the History of Science’. ” Isis 1992 (83): 554–583.
19.
PlofkerKim.2000. “
Use and Transmission of Iterative Approximations in India and the Islamic World. ” In From China to Paris: 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas , edited by Dold-SamploniusYvonne, 167–186. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag.
20.
RainaDhruv.2012. “
The Naturalization of Modern Science in South Asia: A Historical Overview of the Processes of Domestication and Globalization. ” In The Globalization of Knowledge in History, Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge Studies 1, Edition Open Access , edited by RennJürgen, 345–366. Berlin.
21.
RainaDhruv.2015. “
Iterative Learning in the Modernisation of the Indian Mathematical Tradition. ” In Wissen in Bewegung: Institution- Iteration – Transfer , edited by KirschbaumEva Kancik, undTraningerAnita
(Herausgegeben von),
29–47. Berlin: Harrassowitz Verlag.
22.
SartreJean Paul.1982. Critique of Dialetical Reason: Theory of Practical Ensembles, Verso Paperback.
23.
ScharfeHarmut.2002. Education in the Ancient India . Leiden: Brill.
24.
SenAmartya.2005. The Argumentative Indian: Writings in Indian History, Culture and Identity . London: Allen Lane.
25.
SkinnerQuentin.1969. “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas. ” History and Theory 8 (1): 3–53.
26.
SpenglerOswald.
((1919) 1921. Decline of the West: Actuality and Form . 2
Vols.
London: Allen and Unwin.
27.
SpoerhaseCarlos, and KingColin C. 2009. “
Historical Fallacies of Historians. ” In A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography , edited by TuckerAviezer, 274–284. Kanpur: Blackwell.
28.
SrinivasM. D.1987. “The Methodology of Indian Mathematics and Its Contemporary Relevance. ” PPST Bulletin –S 12: 1–35.
29.
SuskindLeonard, and GrabovskyGeorge. 2015. Classical Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum . London: Penguin Books.
30.
ThaparRomila.2021. Voices of Dissent: An Essay . Calcutta: Seagull Books.
31.
TuckerAviezer.1993. “A Theory of Historiography as a Pre-Science. ” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 24 (4): 633–667.
32.
Watson VerranHelen, and TurnbullDavid. 1994. “
Science and Other Indigenous Knowledge Systems. ” In Handbook of Science and Technology Studies , edited by JasanoffSheila, MarkleGerald E., PetersenJames C., and PinchTrevor, 115–139. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
33.
WhitesideD. T.2008. The Mathematical Papers of Sir Issac Newton , Vol.
8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
WittrockBjørn.2012. “
The Axial Age in Global History: Cultural Crystallizations and Societal Transformations. ” In The Axial Age and its Consequences , edited by BellahRobert N., and JoasHans, 102–125. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
