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Eurocentrism in Scientific History
Eurocentrism in scientific history are historical accounts concerning the development of modern science that attribute all scholarly, technological, and philosophical gains to Europe and marginalize outside contributions. The Scientific Revolution in Europe during the 16th-18th centuries was the period of human advancement into modern science by disproving the Aristotelian view of natural sciences and philosophy through proofs of calculations. Until Joseph Needham’s book series Science and Civilisation in China began in 1954, many historians would write about modern science solely as a European achievement with no significant contributions form civilizations other than the greeks. Recent historical writings have argued that there was significant influence and contribution from Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese astronomy and mathematics.

In contrast to the Eurocentric view, there is evidence of east asian influence in the scientific revolution. The German astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus’s is credited to have began the Scientific Revolution with his work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium which used calculations of Islamic astronomers. His findings were focused on the earth’s rotation on its axis every twenty-four hours and its orbit around the sun every 365¼ days. These findings lead Copernicus’s heliocentric system; knowledge known to Chinese astronomers based on their understanding of heavenly bodies moving against the path of the sun and the pole star, such as comets. His heliocentric planetary theory was published in 1543, the same year the greek works of Archimedes were translated from Arabic into Latin. The change in philosophical mindset as well as astronomical improvements gained by the Jesuits research in China is used as evidence to argue for its influence in Copernican work as well as Arab calculations and translations of Greek texts.