ABSTRACT
Existing assumptions on science and technology are therefore, both time bound and place bound. This chapter demonstrates that the particular social epistemology in one civilizational context. It examines the nature of science generally from a social epistemological perspective that would be applicable to other civilizations and other histories. From such a broad perspective, the chapter addresses itself to the narrower and more immediate task of how to generate creativity outside the main European centers. A perspective has an implicit social epistemology which carries with it implications for both the content and direction of scientific thought. The 19th and early 20th centuries were a time when European power was unchallenged. The development of new disciplines is governed by the three levels of social conditioning. The first are the large-scale macro historical changes. The second, are changes at an intermediate level and third, micro social dynamics at the level of groups of scientists working on a particular topic.
