4 ms·

So why Europe and not the East Asia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_Asia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_As

So why Europe and not the East Asia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_Asia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_As... I personally like the theory that it was constant war and conflict which propelled the scientific revolution. The need to compete and outdo others which went hand in hand with the industrial revolution and the politics and economics of the time that led to the french revolution.

zachguo 8y ago
Because it's much cheaper to build a printing machine for alphabets. Cheap transmission of information caused a grassroot intellectual explosion, i.e. the Enlightenment. While in China only the ruling class could afford a printing machine for tens of thousands of characters.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  Huh? In China they just didn't bother with movable type. They printed everything, using wood block printing. (Instead of assembling each page from sorts, carve each page into the surface of a wooden block.) The press looks exactly the same.
woodandsteel 8y ago
I agree about constant war and conflict, but I would add in very different views of things like truth, nature and human psychology from Greek philosophy.