Let me paste here a thought:
Part of the reason that there were no significant Jewish scientists before 1800 is that the Ashkenazic Jewish population did not really exist before 1700. Eastern European Jews underwent a sort of ethnogenesis and population expansion during the 18th century. They represent a coevolution with the modern civilization, a group which has literally evolved in response to certain niches created by modernity.
Are we a group that evolved in response to certain niches created by modernity? But modernity started in Northern Italy, France, Holland, England. We evolved in rural Eastern Europe.
The pic shows an example of coevolution. An orchid from Madagascar has a whip-shaped nectary eleven inches long, with a drop of nectar tucked away at its very base. Only an animal with a suitably long tongue can drink it. Darwin predicted that somewhere in Madagascar there must live just such an insect. Long after Darwin's death, the Madagascar hawkmoth was discovered.
The pic shows an example of coevolution. An orchid from Madagascar has a whip-shaped nectary eleven inches long, with a drop of nectar tucked away at its very base. Only an animal with a suitably long tongue can drink it. Darwin predicted that somewhere in Madagascar there must live just such an insect. Long after Darwin's death, the Madagascar hawkmoth was discovered.
7 comments:
Nigga, you crazy. Everybody knows Moishe Rabbeinu wore a shtreimel and a black lapserdak.
No kidding.
Coevolution is a nonsensical term when used to describe the extension of European education to the tradition-bound Jews. Why were there no famous Chinese, Japanese or Indian scientists during the same period either? No matter what the ethnocentrics say, modern science and its concerns are the exclusive invention of Europeans. That doesn't mean that one has to be white or Christian, one just has to share their same lust of knowing and their prediliction for system building.
That's ridiculous. Ashkenazi Jewry is more or less synonymous with the Yiddish language. Levita published books in Yiddish in the 16th century (and he was not writing in a new language then).
Now it is accurate to say that there was a population explosion in E. Europe in the 18th century. The introduction of the potato increased food supply, there were no wars, etc. so 5 or 6 generations of having 8 or 10 kids each lead to a geometric increase in the # of Jews. But this is not the same as saying that Ashkenazi Jews did not exist at all or that they were somehow a product of Western modernity.
There were no Jewish scientists before the 19th century because Jews were isolated from modernity - for the same reason there are no Hasidic scientists today. The Jews had to become Enlightened before they could contribute to science.
K
Prof. Greg Cochrane started this imbecility. I think he is wrong: many other religious sects appeared from nowhere in Middle Age Germany. Some of them developed in Eastern Germany or colonized Siberia. The Mennonites are one of them, they grew out of a few families. American Pilgrims also went through ethnogenesis. Coevolution is nonsense in this context.
Yes, the reason why are there no Amish scientists is because the Amish population did not really exist before 1700. They too represent a co-evolution with modern civilization. This is complete BS - correlation is not causation.
Now what IS true is that when the Jews came into contact with modernity, they were uniquely well prepared to thrive due to their high intelligence, tradition of literacy, etc. - all skills that increased in value in the modern age. Similarly, we can see that in Asia the Japanese adapted to modernity much better than say the Cambodians, for somewhat similar reasons.
When conditions change, some species are much better adapted to thrive than others - just by coincidence, modern cities happen to resemble the sheer cliffs that are the native habitat of rock doves so cities are full of pigeons and not say cardinals.
K
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