Studies 1

The Globalization of Knowledge in History

Jürgen Renn (ed.)
The extent to which globalized knowledge also existed in the past is an open question and, moreover, a question that is important for understanding present processes of globalization.

The extent to which globalized knowledge also existed in the past is an open question and, moreover, a question that is important for understanding present processes of globalization.

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE) Licence.

Today scientific, technological and cultural knowledge is shared worldwide. The extent to which globalized knowledge also existed in the past is an open question and, moreover, a question that is important for understanding present processes of globalization. This book, the first volume of the series "Studies" of the "Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge," the result of an interdisciplinary cooperation launched in 2007 by a Dahlem Conference, offers surprising answers to this question.
Long-distance and intercontinental connections with an attendant spread of knowledge are as old as Homo sapiens themselves. Since its inception, the globalization of knowledge has been a process with its own dynamics, interfering significantly with other processes of intercultural transmission. The four parts of this volume address historical phases in which the production, transmission and transformation of knowledge were crucial for advancing these processes. Part 1 investigates a series of processes in the very early phases of globalization, from the transmission of practical knowledge to the emergence of science. Part 2 explores how knowledge was disseminated as a consequence of the spread of power and belief structures. Part 3 deals with the encounters between culturally specific knowledge and globalized knowledge. Part 4 is dedicated to the globalization of modern science and to the great challenges, such as energy supply and climate change, that humanity faces when dealing with knowledge today

The 97th Dahlem Workshop:
The present volume is based on the 97th Dahlem Workshop on Globalization of Knowledge and its Consequences, Berlin, 18–23 November 2007, coordinated by Katharina Ochse.

Participants:
Ian Baldwin, Angelo Baracca, Fabio Bevilacqua, Maria Emilia Beyer, Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Gianluca Bocchi, István M. Bodnár, Jens Erland Braarvig, Chiara Brambilla, Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Jacob Dahl, Peter Damerow, Hansjörg Dilger, Kostas Gavroglu, Matteo Gerlini, Denise Gimpel, Gerd Graßhoff, Hans Falk Hoffmann, Dirk Hofäcker, Jarita C. Holbrook, Malcolm D. Hyman, Birgit Krawietz, Manfred Krebernik, Joachim Kurtz, Manolis Patiniotis, Albert Presas I Puig, Daniel T. Potts, Dhruv Raina, Jürgen Renn, Richard Rottenburg, Dagmar Schäfer, Matthias Schemmel, Mark Schiefsky, Meredith Schuman, Gebhard J. Selz, Martina Siebert, Circe Mary Silva da Silva, Ana Simões, Tzveta Sofronieva, Saran Solongo, Karin Tybjerg, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Milena Wazeck, Gerhard Wolf, Harriet T. Zurndorfer

Preface
Jürgen Renn

About the Contributions

World Map – Chapter Overview

About the Contributors

1 The Globalization of Knowledge in History: An Introduction
Jürgen Renn, Malcolm D. Hyman

2 Knowledge and Science in Current Discussions of Globalization
Helge Wendt, Jürgen Renn

PART 1: From Technology Transfer to the Origins of Science

3 Survey: From Technology Transfer to the Origins of Science
Malcolm D. Hyman, Jürgen Renn

4 Technological Transfer and Innovation in Ancient Eurasia
Daniel T. Potts

5 Writing, Language and Textuality: Conditions for the Transmission of Knowledge in the Ancient Near East
Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum

6 The Origins of Writing and Arithmetic
Peter Damerow

7 Globalization of Ancient Knowledge: From Babylonian Observations to Scientific Regularities
Gerd Graßhoff

8 The Creation of Second-Order Knowledge in Ancient Greek Science as a Process in the Globalization of Knowledge
Mark Schiefsky

PART 2: Knowledge as a Fellow Traveler

9 Survey: Knowledge as a Fellow Traveler
Jürgen Renn

10 The Spread of Buddhism as Globalization of Knowledge
Jens Braarvig

11 The Transmission of Scientific Knowledge from Europe to China in the Early Modern Period
Matthias Schemmel

12 Normative Islam and Global Scientific Knowledge
Birgit Krawietz

13 From Khwarazm to Cordoba: The Propagation of Non-Religious Knowledge in the Islamic Empire
Gotthard Strohmaier

14 The Sciences in Europe: Transmitting Centers and the Appropriating Peripheries
Manolis Patiniotis, Kostas Gavroglu

15 The Naturalization of Modern Science in South Asia: A Historical Overview of the Processes of Domestication and Globalization
Dhruv Raina

PART 3: The Place of Local Knowledge in the Global Community

16 Survey: The Place of Local Knowledge in the Global Community
Jürgen Renn

17 Taking China to the World, Taking the World to China: Chen Hengzhe and an Early Globalizing Project
Denise Gimpel

18 The Introduction of the European University System in Brazil
Oscar Abdounur, Adriana Cesar de Mattos

19 Celestial Navigation and Technological Change on Moce Island
Jarita C. Holbrook

20 Translation of Central Banking to Developing Countries in the Post-World War II Period: The Case of the Bank of Israel
Arie Krampf

21 On Juridico-Political Foundations of Meta-Codes
Richard Rottenburg

22 The (Ir)Relevance of Local Knowledge: Circuits of Medicine and Biopower in the Neoliberal Era
Hansjörg Dilger

23 The Transformations of Knowledge Through Cultural Interactions in Brazil: The Case of the Tupinikim and the Guarani
Circe Mary Silva da Silva, Ligia Arantes Sad

PART 4: The Globalization of Modern Science

24 Survey: The Globalization of Modern Science
Jürgen Renn, Malcolm D. Hyman

25 The University of the 21st Century: An Aspect of Globalization
Yehuda Elkana

26 The Soviet Psychologists and the Path to International Psychology
Ludmila Hyman

27 The Global Diffusion of Nuclear Technology
Angelo Baracca

28 The Role of Open and Global Communication in Particle Physics
Hans Falk Hoffmann

29 Internationalism and the History of Molecular Biology
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger

30 The Role of Chemistry in the Global Energy Challenge
Robert Schlögl

31 Climate Change as a Global Challenge – and its Implications for Knowledge Generation and Dissemination
Daniel Klingenfeld, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

32 Toward an Epistemic Web
Malcolm D. Hyman, Jürgen Renn

Show All

A

academic freedom

actor

collective
identity of
mobility of
multitude of
nongovernmental
political

administration

accountability
accounting techniques
colonial
state

agency

change agent
distributed

agriculture

development of
spread of

algebra

alphabet

Greek
history of

alphabetization

alphabetocentrism

animal husbandry

spread of

Anthropocene

arithmetic

Chinese
and cuneiform writing
origin of

B

belief system

Big Science

biomedicine

biopower

borderline object

borderline problem

Buddhism

Buddhist

architecture
art
texts

C

calculus

calendar

Chinese
reform of

capitalism

academic
global
intellectual

cartography

center-periphery model

central banking

centralization

challenging object

chemistry

and energy research
concept of chemical compounds
electro
internationalism of
synthetic

Christian

concept of hell
theology

Christianity

City of God in
Nestorian
Oriental
epistemic transformation of
in Brazil
in China
in the late Roman Empire
medieval
rise of

citizenship

classification

climate

change
decarbonization
negotiation

code-switching

cognition

cultural conditions of
distributed
individual

cognitive

constructions
development
dynamics
egocentrism
homology
maps
order of knowledge
order of science
processes
science

Cold War

colonialism

and education
anti-colonialism
decolonization
global
in Africa
in Brazil
in India
in the Islamic world
policies in
post-colonial studies
post-colonial world
post-colonialism
self-colonization

communication

communication technology

compass

conceptual

change
creolization
framework
system

corridor-like connection

cosmology

creationism

cultural technique

culture

Afanasievo
American
Andronovo
Arabic
Chinese
Greek
Greek-Arab
Indian
Latin
Lower Xiaojiadian
Moce
Mycenaean
Soviet
Tibetan
Xinjiang
and development
bilingual
book
consumer
heterogeneity
indigenous
intellectual
layers of
local
mass
material
mathematical
non-native
proto-Indo-European
scholarly
scientific
technocratic
transculturation

cultures

interaction of

cuneiform

languages

curriculum

Ancient Near Eastern
Chinese
Islamic
mathematics
reform of
research

D

demography

diffusion model

diffusionism

digital divide

disease

HIV/AIDS
measures against

distribution of labor

divination

domestication

of plants and animals

dominant epistemic constellation

E

economic globalization

economic model

economy

hydrogen
labor
liberal
macroeconomics
monetary
nomadic

educational institutions

Babylonian scribal school
Buddhist monastery
Christian school in the Arab world
House of Wisdom
School of Alexandria
engineering school
indigenous
kuttab
madrasa
monastery
polytechnic
vocational school

egocentric speech

elite

Chinese
European
Indian
Jesuit
Latin American
administrative
in Baghdad
indigenous
intellectual
local
of the Ottoman Empire
religious
ruling class
scientific
technocratic
university

empire

Aśokan
British
Byzantine
Chinese
Habsburg
Hellenistic
Hittite
Islamic
Mesopotamian
Mongol
Ottoman
Persian
Qing
Roman
Sargonic
Sasanian
Spanish

empiricism

empowerment

EnerChem

energy

challenge
conservation of
conversion
nuclear
renewable
solar
storage
supply
sustainability of
system

engineering

and colonial rule
and computer technology
bioengineering
chemical
early modern
genetic
large-scale engineering projects
nuclear
reverse

entextualization

epistemic

challenge
community
configuration
framework
framework, global
heterogeneity
island
limitation
network

epistemology

Kantian
deconstructive
historical
philosophical

epistolography

equilibration

evolution

biological
epistemic
of knowledge
of political thought
of writing
sociocultural
socioepistemic

examination system

experiment

experimental system

F

federation

fundamentalism

Fur Route

G

game theory

gender

generative ambiguity

geometry

global

contextualism
convergence
governance
history
warming

globality

glocality

governmentality

grammar

Arabic
Chinese
Pāṇini
philosophical
universal

gunpowder

H

Herrschaftswissen

historiography

economic
imperial
of global history
of molecular biology
of post-colonial science
of science
traditional

homogenization

hubs

human rights

I

iconography

identity

corporate
cultural
intellectual
national
political
positive
social

ideology

Soviet
gender
imperial
technocratic

imperialism

European
cultural
global

industrial military complex

industrialization

capitalist

industry

science-based
state

information processing

information technology

infrastructure

development
global
industrial
information
institutional
legal
technical
transport

innovation

immune reaction to
institutional
local
resistance to
scientific
technical
transfer of

institutional embeddedness

intellectual property rights

interaction sphere

interagent

interdisciplinarity

international organization

internationalism

Islam

Umma in
education in
in the Middle Ages
normative
theology

Islamic studies

J

Judaism

K

Keynesian

model
network

knowledge

adaptation of
administrative
alternative
and global power relations
and practice
and truth
appropriation of
architecture
as a fellow traveler
assimilation of
borrowing
canonization of
chunks of
collaborative generation of
condensation of
control structure for
critical mass of
democratization of
disintegration of
dissemination of
distributivity of
diversification of
domestication of
dynamics
ecology of
economic
economy of
empirical
first-order
form
fragmentation of
hybrid
image of
implicit
indigenous
individual
integration of
intuitive
layers of
linguistic
liquidity of
local
local and global
local, globalization of

L

laboratory

CERN
Cavendish
European Molecular Biology
Joliot-Curie
as pilot project
cultural-scientific
for spectral analysis
psychological

language

Akkadian
Arabic
Aramaic
Aryan
Buddhist
Chinese
Egyptian
Gandhāra
Greek
Hittite
Hurrian
Latin
Luwian
Pāli
Sanskrit
Sumerian
Tajik
Tibetan
Vedic Sanskrit
and economy
and knowledge dissemination
and phonetics
and thought
barrier
colonial
divine
elite
game
hybrid
in Mesopotamia
indigenous
official
origin of
preservation of
proto-Indo-European
spoken
studies
theoretical
vernacular
world

law

Buddhist
Islamic
Roman
constitutional
data protection
divine
indigenous
international
natural
religious
universal

layers of globalization processes

learning processes

emulation of

legitimization

lexical list

Library of Alexandria

lingua franca

Akkadian
Arabic
Aramaic
Chinese
English
Latin

lingua sacra

literacy

Proto-Elamite
and culture
and science
and socioeconomic status
in the Soviet Union
research in
spread of

literati

literature

Akkadian
Arabic
Babylonian
Brazilian
Buddhist
Indo-European
Mahāyāna
Norse Christian
Sanskrit
Sumerian
cuneiform
sacred

logic

Aristotelian
Buddhist
Chinese
Indian
deductive
default
    formal
    internal
    of enlightenment
    syllogistic

M

maritime travel

market

European
academic
as a driver of research
dominance of
financial
food
for emissions
for energy
formation of
globalization of
pharmaceutical
protection of
stability of
underdeveloped

market economy

mass media

mathematics

Babylonian
Chinese
Euclidean
Greek
Newtonian
in Brazil
indigenous
pure
sub-scientific

mechanics

medicine

Ayurvedic
Babylonian
Chinese
Egyptian
Galenic
Greek
Indian
antiretroviral
introduced by missionaries
modernization of
nineteenth-century
traditional

medicine man

memory

communicative
cultural

mental model

meta-code

metalinguistics

meteorology

methodology

migration

missionary activities

Aśokan
Buddhist
Jesuit
Protestant

mnemotechnics

modernity

multiple

modernization

Mohist canon

molecular biology

morality

multilingualism

multiliteralism

N

nation state

nationalism

navigation

celestial

neoliberalism

network

externalities
kinship
of international research
of weak ties
social

neuropsychology

Newtonianism

node

number

concept of
place-value system
representation of
system
theory

numerals

Indo-Arabic

O

occidentalism

ontogenesis

open access

orality

Orientalism

orthodoxy

orthography

orthopraxy

P

paper

history of
invention of

path dependency

percolation model

philosophy

Aristotelian
Cassirer’s
Chinese
Hellenistic
Kantian
Muslim reservations about
Platonic
experimental
linguistic turn in
natural
post-modern
scientific

phonetization

phylogenesis

physics

Newtonian
astrophysics
classical
high-energy
laws of
nuclear
particle
quantum
relativistic

policy

climate protection
development
economic
educational
energy
government
health
instruments for
security

policy-making

positivism

printing

history of
introduction to the Arab world

prosumer

psychology

behaviorist
cognitive
cross-cultural
cultural-historical
developmental
experimental
indigenous
international

Pythagorean theorem

Q

quadrivium

R

rational actor model

reasoning

causal
deductive
mythical
of a child
subjective

rebus principle

representation of knowledge

artistic
external
internal

resonance effect

of science and society

revolution

Brazilian
Chinese
Copernican
Internet
Neolithic
Russian
Upper Paleolithic
epistemological
financial
industrial
industrious
printing
scientific
symbolic
technological
world

rhetoric

ritual

S

science

European
European, transmitted to China
Greek
Hellenistic
alternative
anthropology of
as a medium of societal reflection
as a military and economic factor
as counter-ideology
autonomy of
colonial
disciplinary
diversification of
early modern
ethno-science
evaluation of
global objects of
historical definition of

T

technological package

technology

Chinese
allochthonous
black box
boating
bronze
ceramic
change
chemical
computer
dual-use
energy
evolution of
gene
indigenous
laser
metallurgical
military
nuclear
of the self
paper
science-based
spin-off
textile
transfer
world-scale

textbook

thinking

Buddhist
autistic
egocentric
individual
innovative
institutionalized
logical
non-linear
productive
reflective
symbolic

trade route

translation

center
conceptual
cultural
into Arabic
into Chinese
linguistic
movement
of policy
sociology of

transmission processes

transnational cooperation

triple helix model

U

universalism

local

university

model of

urbanization

V

veto player

W

weapons

nuclear

Web

Epistemic
Old World
Semantic
Web 2.0
of Things

witchcraft

world market

world religion

world system

World War I

World War II

worldview

mechanistic
modern
religious
scholastic
scientific

writing

Greek
Phoenician
Semitic
alphabetic
as codification of language
calligraphy
cuneiform
glottographic
glyphic
hieroglyphic
history of
iconicity of
invention of
lexicographical
logographic
materials for
phonetic
proto-Elamite
proto-cuneiform
proto-writing
rebus
syllabic
technology

Z

Zoroastrism

Information

ISBN

978-3-945561-23-2

DOI

10.34663/9783945561232-00

Pages

868

Publication Date

July 20, 2012

Print on Demand

currently unavailable

Suggested Citation

Renn, Jürgen (ed.) (2012). The Globalization of Knowledge in History. Berlin: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften.

Submitted by

Rivka Feldhay, Markham J. Geller and Dagmar Schäfer

Editorial Team

Lindy Divarci