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Why Was There No Javanese Galileo?

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Empire and Science in the Making

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Abstract

The Dutch being scientific and colonial, this chapter poses two questions about the scientific interests of their colonial subjects in Java. First, did the Javanese have an evidence-based science of the natural world in 1808? Second, if not—and it seems they did not—then why not?

I am grateful for critical comments from Amrit Gomperts, Ward Keeler, and Merle Ricklefs. Caveats are even more applicable here than is usual, firstly because their scholarship exceeds my own to an embarrassing degree, and secondly because I am afraid I have persisted in opinions that each of them, in their own way, perhaps finds inadvisable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Netherlands

    Gerry van Klinken (Senior researcher)

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  1. Gerry van Klinken
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. KITLV, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Peter Boomgaard (senior researcher, professor (emeritus) of History, fellow) (senior researcher, professor (emeritus) of History, fellow)

  2. University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Peter Boomgaard (senior researcher, professor (emeritus) of History, fellow) (senior researcher, professor (emeritus) of History, fellow)

  3. Rachel Carson Center, Munich, Germany

    Peter Boomgaard (senior researcher, professor (emeritus) of History, fellow) (senior researcher, professor (emeritus) of History, fellow)

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© 2013 Peter Boomgaard

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van Klinken, G. (2013). Why Was There No Javanese Galileo?. In: Boomgaard, P. (eds) Empire and Science in the Making. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137334022_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137334022_5

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46251-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-33402-2

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