Talk:History of medicine

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[edit] Once again, Wikipedia fails to get its facts straight

Wikipedians, why don't you just admit it? You are trying very hard to rewrite history to your own liking to make it seem as if Asians played an equal role (or an even greater role) to Europeans when it comes to the creation of modern science (whether we are talking about medicine, astronomy, physics etc....). I have read a great deal of books in the past few years that go into detail on the history of various scientific fields. When all the facts are laid out, Europeans, including Ancient Greeks, are largely responsible for the advanced state that science as we know it, is in today. Yes, I know that other civilizations made some important contributions, but this doesn't mean we should be augmenting their histories and making our own facts up about them in order to put them on the same level as Western Civilization. I notice a lot of contradictions in your articles. First, you go into a long and specious list of accomplishments done by past Asian civilizations, to the point where an average uneducated reader would come to the false conclusion that Asians were largely responsible for forming the foundations of all of our modern sciences. I guess such a thing as the Greeks never existed according to the writers of Wikipedia. Then, you suddenly jump into the modern era, throwing out name after name of European scientists. It is as if you expect the reader to come to the conclusion that these brilliant European scientists of the 1600s and 1700s got all of their knowledge from Asia. This begs the question as to why Asians weren't the first to create the modern world. Of course, the answer to all this confusion is simple. It WAS NOT largely Asians in ancient times who were creating the foundations of modern science. It was Greeks. And it also just happens to be the case that not much was done with science (after the Greeks) until the Europeans started fooling around with science again after coming out of the Dark Ages. Is what I am saying Eurocentric? No, what I am saying simply reflects the facts as they are. --Cftiger 13:30 November 26, 2006.

"Modern" science began in Asia and Africa (Egypt) and then spread to Europe via Greek scholars who studied in these places. Knowledge of it was lost by Europeans in the Dark Ages, but was brought back to Europe by the Muslims in the Middle Ages. Drutt 11:25, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

==Please give me examples of how the science in Asia during those times was "modern". --Cftiger 10:01 April 22, 2007.


Do accept my apology, but I find it very hard to believe that you've actually done your research. If you had, you would know that Muslims in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Andalucian Spain have made an essential, revolutionary contribution to modern science (including mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy and medicine). To say that they were merely a bridge in time is a huge understatement, bordering on naiveness. Ibn Sina, was known in Europe by the latin name Avicenna and considered the father of modern medicine. He wrote The Canon of Medicine, which was the most influential book on medicine for over 600 years. Today, it is still regarded as one the most important medical books ever written. It is in fact, still being sold. Al-Razi was equally influential in the Field of medicine. Al Khawarizmi, a Muslim mathematician who was responsible for the development of Algebra and Trignometry; the basis of today's computer technology. He was also the first to identify the value zero in a valid equation. These names are but a minute fraction in a vast sea of scientists originating in the Muslim world, all who made valuable contributions to modern science. I urge you to do further research, and to do so rigorously. You will find that the few facts I mentioned here, are indeed a small fraction of a more extensive world.

The Muslims took the basis of their knowledge laregely from Ancient Greek works, as well as from China, Persia, India and Egypt. They did however excel, and make their own revolutionary breakthroughs, in sciences, as well as institutions including the first hospitals and universities. War, invasion, civil war and corruption brought the end of this civilation's golden age, it's unique wealth of knowledge was passed on to the west and ushered in an era of a renewed Europe; the Renaissance. It is the way of history; with the end of any civilization, there is the rise of another, to whom the experience and knowledge of the fallen are passed on. This is how we humans progress. WHO'S NEXT?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.222.220.150 (talk) 06:45, 1 April 2008 (UTC)