>
> Is that the <standard> way of "improving" this discussion? What I remember
> from _A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy_ is that he said
> something like "there is no need to discuss Egyptians, Maya, or the
> Chinese." And in practice he didn't discuss so much about the Indians
> either, more than saying that they got everything they had from the
> Greeks.
>
Here is what Neugebauer actually said (p. 2):
"Again by reason of incompetence I have omitted all discussion of
the history of astronomy in China. Its influence upon the Islamic and
Western development is probably not visible earlier than the creation of
Mongol states in Western Asia. Thus the damage done by omitting China is
perhaps not too great and at any rate is alleviated by ignorantia.
"No relation whatsoever exists between our study and Maya
astronomy. Consequently no reference to this field of study will be
found in the following pages."
And at the beginning of "Book III: Egypt", he writes (p. 559):
"Egypt has no place in a work on the history of mathematical
astronomy. Nevertheless I devote a separate "Book" on this subject in
order to draw the reader's attention to its insignificance which cannot
be too strongly emphasized in comparison with the Babylonian and the
Greek contribution to the development of scientific astronomy.
"Egypt provides us with the exceptional case of a highly
sophisticated civilization which flourished for many centuries without
making a single contribution to the development of the exact sciences. In
fact, however, this is not the exception but the rule. Nowhere within
ancient civilizations known to us did the sciences originate
independently, neither in pre-Hellenic nor in early Greek civilization, in
the ancient Near East, on the Iranian plateau, nor in pre-Arian or Arian
India --- with the sole exception of Mesopotamia, probably in the early
second millenium. It is at this single center that abstract mathematical
thought first appeared, affecting, centuries later, neighbouring
civilizations, and finally spreading like a contagious disease."
In a footnote, Neugebauer also mentions China as another exception.
Stacy Langton
University of San Diego
langton@acusd.edu