A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

in detail by J. D. Bernal in the four volume ‘Science in History’, a magnum
opus which was described by the Times Literary Supplement thus:
‘J. D. Bernal’s monumental work, Science in History, is the first full attempt
to analyse the reciprocal relations of science and society throughout
history, from the perfection of the flint hand-axe to the hydrogen
bomb. In this remarkable study he illustrates the impetus given to (and
the limitations placed upon) discovery and invention by pastoral, agricultural,
feudal, capitalist, and socialist systems, and conversely the ways
in which science has altered economic, social, and political beliefs and
practices. The third volume of Science in History covers the twentieth
century, with chapters on the physical sciences and the biological sciences,
with their impact on agriculture and medicine. This stupendous
work ... is a magnificent synoptic view of the rise of science and its impact
on society which leaves the reader awe-struck by Professor
Bernal’s encyclopedic knowledge and historical sweep.’
The fear felt by the hunting-gathering clans from nature’s changes and
furies – night (dark) and day (light), lightning’s and thunder, heavy rains
and floods, presence and disappearance of moon in the sky was perhaps
the initial reason for the humankind to make sense of the functioning of
nature. The discovery that seeds could be grown at one place to provide
food and hence the change from nomadism to settlements with agriculture;
of fire to cook food and remain warm in cold winters, of water
sources and rivers as essential for irrigation for agriculture and hence
the evolution of civilizations along rivers like the Euphrates, Indus, Nile,
Yangtze; further contributed to the knowledge base of humans in their
effort to battle and transform nature for their well-being and benefit. All
this was empirical rather than theoretical knowledge, but yet science.
Tool making, from stone to iron and then from alloys was perfected all
over the globe, and with the advent of the wheel pulled by animals, humans
learnt terrestrial transportation, since many accounts suggest that
using the wind sail to travel over water had already been discovered.
Greece is generally credited as the site of mathematical abstraction, with
Euclid and Pythagoras as shining examples. However Joseph Need-
311