The West uniquely shaped science exclusively for material gain and industrial purposes.

Evidence

Guénon should not be mistaken for a Luddite: every society needs science, he argued, and all civilizations had their own systems of science. Yet, the modern West (which is always for Guénon a culture and epistemology, not a geographical place) is the only civilization that created a form of science exclusively geared for the promotion of material benefit, accumulation of wealth, instrumentalism, and “bodily comfort,” all the while limiting its sphere to “industrial purposes” and “mechanical inventions.” Because “it is limited to the sensible world, which it takes for its sole object,” Western science is myopic, and represents, in the words of an anonymous Hindu scholar that Guénon approvingly quotes, “ignorant knowledge.” — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 289

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is Guénon’s claim that only the modern West made science exclusively instrumental actually supportable against other civilizations’ techno-pragmatic traditions, e.g. Chinese alchemy?
• DEFINE: Clarifies Guénon’s non-geographical definition of ‘the modern West’ as a culture and epistemology rather than a place.