Introduction

Abstract

Westerners invented science, according to Latour, but what do we mean when we use that term—science? We don’t have to think very hard to remember that some of the things we call “science” came from the Middle East, from Babylon and ancient Egypt; others came from India, and yet others from ancient China. None of these places could be described as Western, so what can he mean? The term undoubtedly has different meanings for different people, depending partly on their own association with the field, but in the present day, in the part of the world described as the West, there is a popular idea that science is something to be relied upon. The subjects we describe as sciences—physics, chemistry, biology, and so forth—have rather recent histories, and they were established in Europe only a couple of centuries ago, so let us start by assuming that this explains his assertion.