Precursorism, called in its more extreme forms precursoritis or precursitis, is a characteristic of that kind of historical writing in which the author seeks antecedents of present-day institutions or ideas in earlier historical periods. This kind of
anachronism
An anachronism (from the Ancient Greek, Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronology, chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time per ...
is considered to be a form of
Whig history and is a special problem among
historians of science
The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal.
Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesop ...
. The French historian of
medieval science,
Pierre Duhem, exemplifies several of the characteristics of the quest for precursors of modern scientific ideas. Duhem was trained as a physicist, rather than as a historian; he was French and many of the precursors he identified were French or studied at the
University of Paris; he was a devout Catholic and many of the precursors of the theologically troubling Italian,
Galileo
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
, were members of
religious orders. Most striking among them was the French bishop and scholastic philosopher,
Nicole Oresme.
The concept has been applied to those who would find precursors of
Darwin
Darwin may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection
* Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
in the early nineteenth century, and to those who would find anticipations of modern science in ancient cultures from the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
to
Mesoamerica. Precursorism has recently been identified as a significant factor in some studies of the work of
Islamic scientists.
It is now commonly assumed that historians of science should study past scientific "ideas in their own right, avoiding anachronism and precursoritis."
[ "Rationale" for International Workshop o]
History of Mathematics in the Last 25 Years: New Departures, New Questions, New Ideas.
Notes
{{reflist
Historiography of science