Reorienting the Discovery Machine: Perspectives from China and Islamdom on Toby Huff's Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective

In today's increasingly globalized world, meta-narratives covering long eras and extensive spaces while seeking to explain complex phenomena such as the divergence and convergence in living standards attract attention and interest. Toby Huff's Intel­lectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective is the latest scholarly contribution to the Great Divergence debate. Taking the issue of knowledge gen­eration, accumulation, and diffusion as its point of departure and trying to locate the Scientific Revolution in comparative global history, Huff addresses one of the lesser-discussed aspects of the aforementioned debate. This article first reviews Huff's main thesis and then offers detailed responses from the perspectives of Chinese and Middle Eastern and Islamic history. It concludes with an appraisal of Huff's approach to global history.