Ebook: Empire of Reason: Exact Sciences in Indonesia, 1840-1940

For hundreds of years, dispassionate observers of Western civilization have noted Dutch intellectual achievements. Why this is so during the modern period will be suggested in what follows. The matter is of intrinsic, general interest, although it has unfortunately been neglected. Scholars, by nature timid and ponderous, do perceive that matters of cultural leadership transcend the accidents of linguistic demography, but the perception has done little to extend Dutch history beyond a relatively small circle of specialists and patriots.

The usual motivations for studying a particular culture and period find little place in the following pages. The present volume, conceived in a subpolar and provincial environment lacking most of the relevant sources, originates in something other than specialist or patriotic ardor. It has been undertaken as part of an investigation of the exact sciences and cultural imperialism in the post-industrial period. A discussion of parameters and limits may be read in the introduction to a companion work, but it is not irrelevant to reconsider some of the points here.