The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600

If you can measure it, you can manage it.

This book is the author's attempt to understand "the amazing success of European imperialism." Don’t stop reading this, however. Whatever the author's motivation, the book's content and the author's writing style are both largely devoid of political bias. Crosby argues that the transition from the middle ages to the Renaissance was in part driven by a cultural shift toward measurement-based thinking and away from qualitative and intuitive ways of thinking. He argues (by example and at length - the only form of "argument" available to an historian, as Hayek would note)) that the shift was pervasive, and it can be found in arts, commerce and science. The catalyst for all these advances, he avers, was a desire to better manage increased complexity. For example, sending ships to farther destinations required more complex navigation, and hence motivated the development of the mathematics (geometry, specifically) necessary for improved charting. Crosby's alleged rationale for the push toward "panmetry" reminds me of Mises discussion of universal laws of economic behavior (what Mises referred to as laws of "human action"). Specifically, Mises argues that all human action (conscious, willful behavior) is directed at the reduction of discomfort or the increase of comfort. Crosby's arguments would be more compelling if based on Mises reasoning. Crosby's book has many interesting bits of information about the emergence of the measurement culture, and it is worth reading for that. Ultimately, however, Crosby's book fails to make a convincing (or even much of a) case that the widespread adoption of measurement-based thinking was a cause of anything uniquely related to western imperialism. That does not prevent this book from being an interesting read.

If you can measure it, you can manage it.

Fascinating glimpse inside the Renaissance mind. It is the most enlightening book about the Renaissance that I've ever read, and the minute I finished it, I turned back to the first page and read it again. I don't do that too often! ( )

The author writes that he has been seeking for a reason why western Europe came to dominate the world, and thinks he has found it in the tendency of Europeans to quantify and measure the world. He has a fascinating exposition of several renaissance innovations like perspective and book-keeping that involved ways of quantizing and measuring, and started men thinking about the usefulness of measurement. Algebra and the introduction of arabic numerals also played a role. This is an unusual perspective on the intellectual history of the Renaissance, very readable. ( )