Also why is it called western?¿
In: 0
Western civilization is typically Europe and its former colonies. It’s important because for all of recent history it had dominated the global politics and economy. Its called western because that’s where it is on the map, and since it made the maps, they decided where it was.
It’s the set of principles resulting from cultural development in Western Europe. It’s important because it’s the most materially productive culture known to mankind, by far. Almost any philosophy you’re aware of originated in it’s modern form West of the Rhine.
Western civilization typically refers to the European and near-Eastern cultures (and their descendants such as the Americas and Oceania) that were shaped and grew from Greek, Roman, and Christian culture and philosophy.
It is called Western because it primarily developed in what European map makers regarded as the western side of the world, with Asia being in the east. Therefor eastern culture generally referred to the cultures of the Indian subcontinent, China, Korea, Japan, and the various Southeast Asian nations.
It’s important because many of the most powerful and influential nations of the recent past, especially into the 20th and 21st century have been part of Western culture, such as England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United States. And Russia/USSR which straddles the line is still heavily influenced by Western culture and history.
That does not mean western culture is “better” or that it will stay dominant, but it has had a profound impact on world events and culture and still does to this day.
Western Civilization primarily follows the rise and fall of Mesopotamia (the cities that grew between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), then Ancient Greece, then the Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe gets into feudalism. That lasts for some time before the Black Death caused a labor shortage, which caused a change in thinking and led to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. It’s a fairly steady progression west, and the study of the old world helps to inform the development of our new world. Some of the older discoveries/inventions/developments, like Euclidean Geometry and Greek tragedy, are still taught. The Romans brought us public works. Learning where the past made mistakes helps to avoid them in the future… but every story is also a part of the time in which it was written.
Basically, they call themselves western, in relation to Asia being eastern to them.
What is it: it’s the west Europe culture and civilization coming from the medieval times to our recent days. With all its transformations.
Why is important? Well, there was a time when China discovered gunpowder, and Europeans copied that, then the Europeans started a 400 year long race about who can pew-pew the most and unfortunately this included ships with 10-140 guns each.
At some point they had the idea to use the ships to pew pew the entire planet and erase any other civilization. Almost managing to.
The era of “western pew pew everyone else” is coming to an end, we will be a more comprensive and culturally unified planet, with some room for every culture. But we can’t neglect how important the western culture is.
It’s basically the only culture that survived the “sea pew pew age”.
If you look the last 400-600 years, there was western culture and cultures silenced by westerns.
And, let’s say 500 to give a figure, 500 years of human development are quite important: the evolution of society, painting, buildings, literature, philosophy were all happening under the western culture monopoly for the last 500 years.
Funny you should ask. I just read Civilization: the west and the rest by Niall Ferguson. Not saying he is right about everything (I don’t know), but he makes some interesting points.
Latest Answers