European science absorbed other knowledge systems while their competitors were destroyed

Evidence

The Middle Ages represented an actual loss of contact with and knowledge of the outside world. Alexander the Great’s conquests (336–323 BC) had taken the Macedonian-Greek armies as far east as the Himalayas. … But in the Middle Ages, Europe closed in on itself. It retained some knowledge of India (especially among Venetian traders), but beyond that lay unknown territory. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 557 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval Europe actively lost its earlier knowledge of the wider world — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 557; Science had to destroy traditional good sense to create a new one — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1515; European expansion and modern science each required the other’s success (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Europe actively lost its earlier knowledge of the wider world #complicates (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 557