The unity of theory and practice in anthropology Book

I have actually read this book three times this year - and the third time I took detailed notes! There is a wealth of fascinating history around civilisation and science in this book. The only problem is that the author then struggles to bring it all together into a coherent theme. There is an attempt to weave an argument about how science, innovation and wealth do much better without government funding of science but it reads more like a collection of articles rehashed to fill out an unfinished book.

Despite this there are so many fantastic nuggets of information, over an incredible variety of subjects that it is really recommended to read this book.

My notes below to give an idea of the overwhelming wealth of information contained in this book. Unfortunately not enough space for all of my notes but should give a good idea!


## Concept of Progress

* 1st considered 1605 Francis Bacon 'the advancement of learning'
* How had Spain become so powerful
* Knowledge is power
* Printing gunpowder and magnet
* Government investing in science
* All previous discoveries by artisans
* Science = observation, induction, deduction, and experimentation
* Karl Popper - all scientific laws are provisional
* Einstein - it is theory that decides what we observe
* Plato and Aristotle "history is cyclical"
* How can knowledge be increased when already revealed by god
* Research, recovery and renaissance used to hide the actual search and discovery of new learning
* 1434 Henry had passed Cape Bojador
* 1530 Copernicus De Revolutionibis
* 1543 Vesalius De humani corporis fabricia
* 1600 William Gilbert De magnete
* Adam Smith 1723-1790
* Neo-Classical economics
* Price Theory
* Aquinas - price depends on labour
* Hobbes - buyer dtermines the price
* Joseph Schumpeter 'Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
* In real life companies compete for monopolies by innovation
* Microsoft $4.4 Billion researchbudget
* If firms fail to protect their monopolies by reinvesting profits in research their competitors will displace them
* Armen Alchian 'Uncertainty Evolution and Economic theory' 1950
* Innovations created randomly and success depends on customer selection

## Science

* Bronze age maths was empirical
* Greeks invented modern maths and science
* Proofs
* Analysis
* Synthesis
* Reduction
* Exhaustion
* Reduction to absurdity
* Euclid geometry
* Definitions
* Postulates
* Axioms
* Propositions
* 550 BC
* Bacon
* Observation
* Induction
* Deduction
* Experimentation
* Scientific method is intuitive
* Market method of investment is the same as scientific methos, and drives science
* Ownership
* Public property of science
* Esteem of being the inventor
* Ricardo
* Believed technology drove progress
* In fact they follow the market but do not create it
* Research
* For Profit
* First example from italy of Tartaglia who was a freelance maths teacher
* Not for profit
* Universities compete by promoting original research of their teachers
* Philanthropic
* Galileo supported by the Medicis
* Kuhn
* The structure of scientific revolutions
* Observations selected to support paradigms
* Copernicus decided sun was centre of universe because God would make circles not epicycles
* Popper
* Science progresses as data disproves theories
* Einstein
* Theory determines what we observe
* Post Modernists
* Science is a social construct. No objective truth
* If science is factional then government funding is political and removes science from effective judgement
* Models
* Bacon
* Government money = academic science = technology = wealth
* Where does technology originate
* Queens Awards for Industry
* Innovation came from existing technology NOT new science
* Edwin Mansfield US 1975 - 1985 90% of innovation based on existing technology
* Old technology influences new technology and academic science
* DNA
* Oswail Avery proved DNA determined inheritance whilst studying pneumonia
* Researcher a Rockerfeller Institute
* Discovery of DNA structure was then just a consequence
* Science is a public good
* Economists would say entrepreneurs do not invest in research as cheaper to just copy
* USA 2000
* $181 b private industry
* $72 b government
* $12 b foundations
* Costs to copy are almos the same
* Need to do research in order to understand and profit from new ideas
* Why do scientists publish
* For self esteem / recognition of peers
* Cluster - to cross-fertilise ideas
* Companies share knowledge as a type of trade
* Need to build trust through proximity in location or at conferences
* Trust is not rational
* Study USA 1970 found that 50% of GDP spent on management, lawyers, police etc.
* Game Theory
* Scientists publishing papers is a self interest game theory in practise
* CUDOS
* Communism, universalism, disinterestdness, and Organised skeptism
* Robert Boyle 1627 - 1691
* Tacit Knowldege
* When copied reproduced or witnessed that knowledge becomes legitimised
* Every scientific paper needs to explain how to reproduce the results
* Disagreed with the approach to only publish in secret, or in codes
* Royal Society
* Only admitted persons of trust
* Hobbes - means facts are not publicly validated
* Means science is not a public good but a private club of scientists
* Esteem went to the scientist that published first ..not to the one who made first discovery
* Founded by Freemasons
* Met in Gresham College London and Wadham College London
* Patents
* Ford
* Had to fight 10 years to have a license to produce cars
* Marconi
* Fought Nikola Tesla in courts for 29 years before losing
* Wright Brothers
* Patented their plane
* Challenged by Smithsonian Institution
* Falsely claimed their plane was first
* Wrights patent was revoked 1917 as a war measure
* All airplane patents were collectively pooled until 1975
* Weapon rich nations use against the poor
* Globalisation by Joseph Stiglitz
* Uruguay Round strengthened patents and increased poverty
* Capitalist companies always seek monopolistic profits
* Hollywood
* Film industry went to West coast to escape Edison's patent on raw film
* Pharmaceutical industry
* Exception because of time to market
* Strong patents lead to increased R&D research

## Money

* Barter resticted by numbers of exchange rates - one foe each pair of goods
* Cattle served as first money
* Cowrie - a shell most successful currency
* Started in New Stone Age
* Nigeria was using in 20th century
* Ruined by inflation
* 1790 a bride cost 2 cowries in uganda
* 1860 cost 1,000 cowries
* Precious metals 1,500 BC

## Portugal

* Henry the Navigator
* Launched modern world of progress
* Conquered Ceuta in Morocco
* Pope guarantee that any crusader killed would go direct to heaven
* Its economy then collapsed
* Based on gold trade with Senegal
* Henry wanted to sail to senegal but no knowledge
* 20 years exploring beforeCape Blanco and capturing slaves
* Set up research centre in Sagres Algarve
* Spice Trade
* Trading portsGenoa and Venice
* Allowed up to Damascus and Alexandria
* Persia, India, malasia and Indonesia
* Romans broke monopolies and sailed to India
* Portugal ended 4 centuries of mediterranean dominance
* 1474 King Joao
* Problem to explore south equator as no North Star
* Jewish cosmographers
* 1488 rounded Cape of Good Hope
* 1498 Vasco da Gama persuaded an arab navigator to pilot him to India, Calicut
* No trade deal possible by barter
* 1502 da Gama returned to India with war fleet
* 1509 Francisco de Almeida defeated muslim fleet
* 1510 Afonso de Albuquerque established Goa, Hormuz Persia, and Malacca Malaysia
* 1588 Spice Trade was 50% of government income

## Spain

* Columbus
* King Joao decided impossible to reach Japan by sailinf West - too far away
* Sponsored by Spain as threatened by Portugal

## USA

* 1789 1st factory cotton mill
* Mercantalism
* Henry Clay, Morrill, abraham Lincoln
* Government control of economy
* Agricultural colleges
* Taxes and import tariffes
* Cause of Civil War as raised prices of manufactured goods for South
* Up to 1890 was a converging economy but then overtook UK in GDP per capita
* Hoover 1932
* "Progress is due to scientific research"
* Roosevelt
* Expanded research as part of the New Deal
* Scientists did not want government control
* 1950 National Science Foundation
* 1958 NASA and National Defence Education Act
* 1965 Federal R&D increased 500 times
* Department of Defence 'Project Hindsight' concluded that discoveries from technologists boosted pure science - not the other way around
* Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush all increased state funding of science for quasi militaristic defence reasons
* Business Management
* Real reason for economic success

## Great Britain

* Agricultural Revolution
* Enclosures
* Societies established to disseminate knowledge
* New knowledge
* 18th century 60% increase In productivity
* Structure of economy
* 1700
* 60% Agriculture, 15% Industry, 25% Services
* 1820
* 40, 30, 30
* 1890
* 16, 44, 40
* 1979
* 2, 39, 59
* 2000
* 1, 25, 74
* Industrial Revolution
* 1st factory 1719 John and Thomas Lombe silk throwing
* 1780 to 1860
* Population tripled from 7.5 million to 23 million
* Real wages doubled from 11 to 28 pounds per head
* New technology
* Cotton
* A worker became 10 times more productive
* Innovation from workers + new management skills
* Steam Power
* 1712 Thomas Newcomen
* Pull method via vacuum condensation
* 1600 Salomon de Caus steam pump
* James Watt separate condensor
* Repressed developments
* 1760 granted a patent until 1800
* 1800 Richard Trevithick
* Push method
* 1803 1st locomotive
* 1825 George Stevenson
* GDP
* Steady increase 1850 to 1900
* Flat to 1920
* Expodential to increase by 4 in just 50 years
* But actual rate of growth since 1820has been steady at 2% per year
* Lead countries growth limited to 2/3% because innovation is hard
* Iron and steel production
* 1880 produced 46% of world iron, and 36% of steel
* 12% of GNP
* 1913 Britain was world's largest importer
* 6% of GNP
* Inevitable as limit to size of country, germany subsidized their industry e.g traing schools and pushed exports
* Adam Smith - purpose of economic activity is to consume, not to produce. If cheaper to import steel then better for economy
* Technological progress
* 1856 Bessemer invented convertor = mass production
* 1866 Siemen invented open hearth furnace
* 1879 Thomas 'basic' process for steel using phosphorus ore
* Chemicals
* 1913
* USA=34%
* Germany=24%
* UK=11%
* 1881-1911
* Growth faster than any other indutry
* 2.7% of labour force
* 1914
* ICI
* 1856
* William Perkin synthasised mauve - aniline dye
* Government & Science
* Babbage born 1792
* Funded by government to build calculating machine but never finished
* Boer War catalyst for funding
* 40% recruits rejected as unfit
* Private funds
* William Cavendish 1871
* Alfred Mond 1874
* Davy Faraday
* Medical Research Council
* Universities
* WW1 nearly bankrupted them - led to Universties Grants
* Russia Cold War stimulus for massive investments in science
* 1st nuclear electricity generator Calder Hall
* 1st commercial computer Ferranti 1951
* 1st commercial jet airliner Comet 1952
* Concorde
* BUT all coomercial failures!

## Italy

* First eucountry to break with feudalism
* ...
* City states fought off feudal lords and became mercantile republics
* Invented tools of international trade
* Cheques
* 1st in Pisa in 14th century
* International Bills of exchange
* 1st was 1156 in Genoa
* Perfect way to disguise interest payments
* Banks
* Derived from banca meaning bench
* Broken bench = bankrupt
* Insurance
* Double entry book keeping
* Invention of the firm
* Patent
* Recognised commercially inspired research
* But a conspiracy against public
* Rebirth of science
* Mathematics
* Leonardo Fibonacci introduced the decimals to europe in 13th century
* 1534 first cubic equation

## Germany

* 1450
* Printing press
* Gutenburg
* Merging of 4 distinct technologies
* Printing of large sheets of clothe with wooden blocks
* Printing of playing cards with movable wooden type faces
* Casting
* Wine presses
* Protected by law
* Regulated
* 1486 all bible translations banned
* 1557 Pope list of banned books
* Discontinued in 1966 with list of 4000
* 19th century growth by copying
* Motor car 4 stroke
* 1876 nicolaus Otto
* Barbiturates
* 1864 Adolf von Baeyer
* 1948 economists Ordo-liberalists
* Ludwig Erhard
* Central bank, liberalised trade
* Universities
* Supported state and received full funding
* WW1 justified burning of Leuven library on racial grounds
* WW2 full support of Nazis

## India

* Gupta dynasty
* Chess, decimal numbers, geometry

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