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By the time Isaac Newton came along, the Age of Discovery and Commerce had been going on for two centuries. Colleges and Universities were turning out scientists and engineers in droves thanks to commercial demand. It was not the Age of Schlarsticism during 1100-1500. Notice the 1500 time break line. That's the impact of reality check that New World discovery / commercial profitability had upon the otherwise heads-up-the-rear-end orthodoxy that any ivory tower system funded by government/church inevitably become. That also explains why the middleast and far east stuck to their respective scripture orthodoxy for the next 400 years just like Europeans did before circa 1500, whereas West Europe embarked upon the age of modernity with scientific achievements.
It's not the 10% vs. 90% per se, but the dynamic feedback system in the form of real world profitability (unrelated to defending religious orthodoxy) that enticed far more than 10% of the students out of the theological studies after Europe entered the Age of Discovery and Commerce; the vast majority of student bodies were pursuing real science (some called "arts" back then, not fine arts) and engineering in the heydays of Western Civilization in the 18th and 19th centuries. Which pursuit pays really matters. If the government is allowed to tilt the pay scale in favor of orthodoxy defense, students and young talents would indeed waste their lives doing just that.
Newton was paid next to nothing for his Physics discoveries and Principia Mathematica (i.e. discovering calculus) . . . however his analytical skills and systematic approaches to problem solving using his intellectual tools was richly rewarded in the market place. Not sure why a person whose talent is richly rewarded in the market place can not be intellectually curious too; they usually are.
If you believe voluntary donors to scientific research is nearly non-existent, then why would bureaucrats engaged in bureaucratic infighting be interested in genuine research at all instead of wasting all funds on rewarding the defense of their own particular brand of orthodoxy? That's precisely where almost all government research funding went in the Age of Scholasticism, and throughout most of worldwide intellectual history. The European experience from circa 1500 to mid-20th century was an exception not the norm, an exception resulting from a very competitive commercial environment. The peculiar observation in recent years about having a global warming angle being immensely helpful in winning government research grants is indicative of just how quickly government funding of research is turning the clock back to theocracy.
posted by 24.91.39...
, Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:20:06
, Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:33:51
, Sat, 9 Jul 2011 13:06:57
, Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:40:16, Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:27:51, Fri, 8 Jul 2011 14:20:12
, Fri, 8 Jul 2011 09:26:41
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