What are the issues being addressed?

Phase 3 of the spread of western science, according to George Basalla, is the

transition of a nations science from colonial science (science that is heavily
dependent on western science) to an independent scientific tradition. This would
mean that the scientists would be educated in the nations institutions, carry on
work in the nation itself, interact mainly with the scientific community there and
draw inspiration and ideas mainly from their peers in this community.
In this part of the article, George Basalla enumerates the various factors that are
required to be fulfilled for this transition to happen successfully. This part of the
article is largely prescriptive as it describes what the nation must do in order to
establish an independent scientific tradition. It supports its arguments with
examples, so it has a few descriptive parts too.
Identify the argument and the evidence for the argument
The author argues that there are certain tasks which have to be completed for a
nation to fully transition to Phase 3. Superstitions and beliefs that hinder the
progress of science must be eradicated. Basalla supports this point by giving an
example of how Confucianism in China was a major impediment to the progress
of Science in China. Basalla also states that science and scientists should not
have a lowly status in society, otherwise science will remain at a standstill due to
limited participation. This point he supports with the example of scientists in
Brazil who made their servants collect samples and carry out the menial work,
which made their work amateurish.
Similarly, most other points are substantiated by an example to make the point
clear and more convincing. Comparisons of different countries are given to show
how the spread of western science occurred in broadly very similar ways in all
countries, but how the details of each phase of this spread vary from country to
country. The arguments are largely causal; the tasks Basalla lists out would
cause the transition of science from Phase 2 to Phase 3. Most of the evidence
here is historical; the author picks out examples in world history that support his
hypothesis. This might not give the full picture if there were other examples
which were contradictory to the ones mentioned in the text here.
Assumptions and Ambiguities
The most foundational assumption here is that Western Europe is the origin of
modern scientific knowledge. The author fails to mention how Europe acquired
this knowledge in the first place and why other countries did not develop this
knowledge similarly. He also does not talk about the status of science in the
countries before Phase 1.
Basalla assumes that the tasks he mentions are the major ones that would
catalyse the transition from Phase 2 to Phase 3. Another major assumption is
that these tasks are difficult to accomplish and therefore initially the growth of
science in phase 3 is very slow. Thus, the shape of the growth curve for science
in phase 3 (initially slowly rising, and then rising faster and faster) is an

assumption of the author. The author thus assumes that the scientific activity in
the world is not free and borderless but mostly clustered and bound within
nations.
The authors treatment of the relationship of science with technology is
ambiguous. He doesnt take a definite view on this topic but rather circumvents
the issue by proposing questions that must be asked to understand this
relationship.
Since the author does not quantify progress of science, all the relationships he
draws from the qualitative curves are not supported by evidence. They need to
be substantiated with further evidence which can quantify sciences progress (by
measuring scientific output).
Rhetorical flourishes
The author uses rhetoric to make his arguments more convincing. An example of
this is when he asks Will the 18th-century American scientist, or his
counterparts in 19th-century India or Australia, whose contributions appear in
the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, be satisfied to
write for a natively produced periodical with few readers and little influence?
The author also begins the section by saying that Phase 3 is one of the least
studied and understood amongst the three phases. This is again an
embellishment to the article which will attract readers to Phase 3.
Other possible conclusions
The author fails to discuss some major factors that influence the establishment
of an independent scientific tradition. One of them is the economic status of the
country. Another is the cultural, linguistic and scientific traditions prevailing in
the nation. The form of government is also crucial to the spread of science, which
Basalla addresses, but insufficiently.
If more data regarding these factors were presented in the text, a different
conclusion would have been possible, but as the author only presents examples
to support his point, there is no other conclusion that I can draw from the
evidence.