This book seeks to provide an introductory outline of the history and theory of knowledge production, notwithstanding the vastness of the subject. It is a brief history of intellectual formation or history of ideas. One can see it as a textbook of historical epistemology, which in spatio-temporal terms historicizes knowledge production and contextualizes methodological development. It addresses the historical process of the social constitution of knowledge, that is, the social history of the making of knowledge.
Its objective is to make researchers knowledgeable about the significant elements that underlie the history of knowledge. These elements constitute contemporary compulsions that make and shape knowledge. Understanding what they mean and how they work is essential to prepare researchers as self-consciously realistic about the socio-economic and cultural process of knowledge production. What forces engender knowledge? How certain forms of it acquire precedence over the rest and why?—These are some of the questions examined. Who decides what knowledge means or what should be recognised as knowledge becomes important here. The discussion of knowledge systems is categorized under broad heads, namely the non-European—specifically the Indian—and the European. Examining the process of the rise of science and new science, the book also reviews speculative thoughts and imagination about the dynamics of subatomic micro universe as well as the mechanics of the galactic macro universe.