What is western culture?

Question 1: what is western culture and what is western culture?

Where do we start? From the origin of the field, of course

The first thing we should understand is that the bud of western culture should be ancient Greek mythology!

We have all heard of ancient Greek myths more or less, because they have really made people talk about them for thousands of years! Like the Trojan War, the story of golden fleece, the beautiful Aphrodite, Zeus, the king of gods, etc., we not only heard about God, but also heard about many mortals closely related to God, such as Oedipus, Helen and so on!

Just like the creation myth of Pangu in ancient China, the west also has its own creation legend. The first sentence of the Bible is: "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth!" " There is a legendary myth, from which we heard the earliest songs of the ancient Greeks, which spread to the mouth of a deaf-mute and then became Hiriart and Odyssey.

Listen to the earliest songs of the ancient Greeks!

Long ago, the universe was an empty shell. After centuries, something called "Chaos" finally appeared (like the one that Pangu stayed in before he was born, like an egg waiting to hatch). One day, something finally broke out of its shell. She is Mother Earth-Gaia, the spirit of all things. She gave birth to everything we see in the world.

She and her son Lolanos first gave birth to a one-eyed monster with 50 heads 100 arm, and then gave birth to six beautiful and huge men and six women. They were called Titan protoss and the ancestors of the gods on Olympus. After two wars, Zeus finally secured the throne of the king of the gods and began a large-scale unification of the divine world. He and two other brothers, Poseidon and Hadders, ruled the sky, the earth, the sea and the underworld respectively. He married his sister Hera-Tianhou, and * * * was in charge of heaven and earth. Zeus, his many children and the Titan gods lived a happy life on the sacred Mount Olympus. They are in charge of all the production and life affairs on the earth: Athena, Apollo, Ares, Dionysus, nine literary goddesses, animal husbandry goddesses and so on.

Knowing the source of human civilization, now we are going to tell Homer's epic (including ...), an unparalleled treasure in western culture. It is said that its author is a deaf and blind wandering bard Homer. One of the most important is the Odyssey with the Trojan War as its content.

The handsome Prince of Troy brought back the peerless beauty Princess Helen from the Greek city-state, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the whole Greek city-state. They sent the bravest general and assembled a huge army. In order to seize their most beautiful Helen and safeguard the honor of Greece, they crossed the Aegean Sea and marched into Troy! Ten years of war, victory, defeat, the hero was killed, and Troy's front was covered with corpses and rivers of blood! A loss fell on the Greeks like a mountain. Finally, one of the smartest Greeks came up with a wonderful plan, which is the most famous plan in western history-Trojan Horse Plan. This huge wooden horse was brought into Troy as a sacred object of God. At midnight, the Greeks slaughtered the Trojans after Trojan horses and Greek warships pretended to escape from the carnival outside the city! After going through all kinds of hardships, the Greeks finally returned home with a beautiful seagoing ship after the bloody slaughter of Chet!

After the glorious Greece, the great Roman nation leveled most of Europe with their invincible iron hoofs and created the history of the West with powerful force. The Roman Empire they established is the greatest empire in history, and the work of westerners today is closely related to this empire!

In the long and dark Middle Ages, all people's thoughts and behaviors were influenced by powerful and autocratic Christianity. Although people sincerely worship and praise God, they hate the decadent and autocratic church-they have sacred names, but they are carrying out the cruelest, most obscene and corrupt activities. Even in this darkest period, we will find a great writer. In his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, a magical journey is recorded, filled with the great poet Virgil and his beautiful lover, Bitrich, who visited the places where we will stay after death, hell, purgatory and heaven.

During the great Renaissance, we will be very excited to find one of the greatest writers in history ... >>

Question 2: What is western culture? Western culture is a very broad word. Including classical culture, medieval culture, Renaissance culture, European culture after the industrial revolution, the New World and the era of navigation, Europe and the United States after World War II. , but also can be subdivided into many specific categories. You are doing your homework on interior design. Please refer to antoinio gaudi's works (such as Sagrada Familia). He is recognized as an architect who combined European classical architectural style with new materials and Art Nouveau movement in the 20th century. In addition, you can find several aspects of information to show the style and features of European culture: 1, Greek and Roman art; 2. Anglo-Saxon style; 3. basilica architecture; 4. Romanesque architecture (different from ancient Rome, look for books to see clearly); 5. Gothic art; 6. The artworks of St. Peter's Cathedral in different periods; 7. Baroque style; 8. Rococo style; 9. Neoclassicism and Romanticism. The classical and representative styles in Europe stop here, and further development is the bud of modernism.

Question 3: What is western culture? Western culture refers to the primitive formation in southern Europe and northern Europe; The prevailing cultures in Western Europe, Northern Europe, North America and Australia include the same standards, values and customs in the western world. In Europe and America, the word "west" corresponds to orthodox Christianity, Asian countries, or developing countries in the third world.

The concept of western culture is usually associated with the traditional definition of the western world. According to this definition, western culture is a collection of its literary, scientific, musical and philosophical principles, which is different from other major civilizations. It is applicable to countries strongly influenced by western European immigration or colonization, not limited to western Europe. Most of these traditions are listed in western classics.

Western culture is used in many ways, whether it is used correctly or not, including American culture, materialism, industrialism, capitalism, commercialism, hedonism, imperialism, modernism and even explaining western civilization.

Western culture is generally considered to have originated from Indo-Europeans in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Western culture is also rooted in Slavic, Germanic and Celtic cultures in northern Europe, and these cultures are an important driving force for the formation of Europe. Christianity had a great influence on the Middle Ages, and many people would compare Christianity with western culture. It is also worth noting that before * * *, the whole Mediterranean was regarded as the same cultural circle. After Christianity and * * * rose one after another, they were cut into two cultural circles, Asia, Africa and Europe, although the cultural thinking of the two places parted ways three thousand years ago.

All over the world, the elements in western culture have a strong influence on other cultures. Many people with cultural background, whether western or non-western, equate "modernization" with "westernization". Of course, there are also many non-Westerners who oppose adopting western ideas and values as a necessity for all societies. Some members of the non-western world associate scientific and technological progress with different western values, which are quite different from those of their local society, and take this as a reason to oppose most "modernization".

It is indisputable that most of the technical and social models that constitute the so-called "modernization" concept have developed from the western world. But whether these technologies and social models are essential parts of western culture is even more difficult to answer. According to empirical science, many people think that this question cannot be answered. Instead, we must find a "value" problem in its value system (such as philosophy, religion and political theory). Of course, many parts of anthropology now show the relationship between physical environment and daily activities, as well as the formation of culture (discovered from cultural ecology). Therefore, "modernization" and "modern" technology not only refer to "science" (that is, physics), but also may be closely related to a certain culture, such as western culture. Without these technologies, today's western culture will be very different from the well-known situation throughout the ages.

Question 4: What is oriental culture and what is western culture? The topic is too big, and it is still under development. It is suggested to choose a narrower category, such as interpersonal relationship, eating, shopping, and so on.

Question 5: What is western culture? What are its characteristics? Western culture is essentially individual culture. The main feature of western culture is individuality, and its core problem lies in emphasizing individual freedom. Therefore, western culture can be called "individual culture". The core of culture is the perception of ideas. In today's world, there are two different concepts, namely, the integrity of eastern culture and the individuality of western culture, which is the result of the development of human history. Different political, economic and social environments have created different cultural concepts and produced different characteristics of eastern and western cultures. According to system theory, the whole culture and individual culture are both important factors to improve the efficiency of social system, so they are complementary and can be integrated. Neither can be neglected, so the eastern and western cultures can be said to be complementary in essence. From the perspective of improving the efficiency of social system, the capitalist society with liberalization as its cultural background in the west and the socialist society with integration as its cultural basis in the east are not antagonistic, but complementary. The correct development direction should be to learn from each other's strong points and learn from each other's strong points. In fact, history is doing this. Western culture is constantly learning from eastern culture, absorbing beneficial ideas from eastern culture and blending into western culture. For example, some western countries also advocate "Lei Feng spirit" and "team spirit" and introduce the collectivism spirit of oriental culture. The "state intervention", "nationalization" and "social security system" in some capitalist countries are essentially socialist things.

Question 6: What is western culture? Generally speaking, it refers to European and American traditional customs, national festivals, traditional concepts, literature and art, science and technology, places of interest, etc. For example: Christmas, Spanish bullfighting, etc. Reflect western culture.

Question 7: What is the core of western culture? Christianity first: before the Renaissance, the power of the church was above the state, and the king needed the permission of the bishop to be crowned and enthroned. Even religion is above science, Bruno was burned to death and Copernicus was persecuted, which shows that the power of religion is everywhere. As for culture, not to mention, there are countless church buildings and religious portraits. People's daily life is linked with religion, and they worship and repent.

Second, with the progress of history and the development of science. Religion's right to speak in science has declined, but the pioneers of western empire expansion are often some religious fanatics. Missionaries traveled around the world, from the igloo of Eskimos in the north to the Cape of Good Hope in the south, whether it was a civilized metropolis or a primitive African tribe. They are everywhere. Even though the theory of evolution has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, some people still believe that God created human beings.

Third: You can see the influence of Tibetan Buddhism on Tibetans, and you can see the position of Christianity in the West.

Fourthly, in literature, the sentences in the Bible often appear in famous works, such as Notre Dame de Paris, and religious music is probably the most prominent. It is rare to see a large-scale singing group, and people on the screen are confessing with black bibles. As for people's faith, Nietzsche once said that God is dead. In today's extremely rich material, there have been generations of people who have no faith, but people need a little spirit. After the confusion in the sixties and seventies, westerners began to repent. I believe that those environmental organizers and open source software organizations are conscientious westerners.

Question 8: What is the connotation of western culture? The so-called west refers to most parts of Europe today. Historically, Occident originally refers to the "East" relative to the Byzantine Eastern Roman Empire and the East, that is, the "Christian world". The so-called Christian world, at first, mainly refers to areas that believe in Christianity, and later specifically refers to areas ruled by the Roman Catholic Church. The area covered by the concept of "West" is essentially determined by the regional changes under the influence of the above three factors.

If eastern culture is spiritual, then western culture is relatively material, which is called "western material culture" here.

The development of western culture is much simpler than that of eastern culture, ranging from theology to philosophy and finally to science. Western theology is different from eastern theology, which is based on profound Confucian classics, while western theology has no profound thoughts, but purifies the soul by worshipping beautiful gods, without strong spiritual guidance in eastern theology. Therefore, the western theological thought does not affect the management thought of * * *, and this problem is completely different in the East, especially in China, where Confucian classics and Neo-Confucianism are the basis of the management thought of * * *, and mixed theological thoughts will also penetrate into the management thought of * * *. The biggest difference between western theology and eastern theology is that western theology does not exclude matter, while eastern theology strongly excludes matter. This difference in cultural connotation has led to the emergence of western material culture, which has brought western awareness of industrial production and economic development. Oriental culture can't produce the consciousness of industrial production and economic development because it rejects material.

The emergence of western philosophical culture is the prelude and ideological preparation of the emergence of western material culture, and it is also the beginning of rational thinking of western culture. From theological culture to material culture, western philosophical culture has played a transitional role. In western philosophy and culture, the most important problem to be solved is whether material comes first or spiritual comes first. Does matter decide spirit, or does spirit decide matter? This philosophical debate finally liberated western culture from the chaotic thinking of theology and established a rational thinking that emphasizes material, that is, the thinking of material culture, which is a great progress of western culture.

During this period, the emergence of scientific culture strongly supported materialism, so theology was left behind history, and theology became a cultural "decoration" in name only.

Western material culture is based on scientific thinking. Philosophical culture liberates the thinking of westerners, but also breeds scientific thinking and scientific theory. The birth of "molecular theory" announced the appearance of western material culture, because it was the beginning of western material thinking, characterized by exploring material composition and advocating material glory.

Oriental thinking is material thinking, based on the theory of Yin and Yang, and pays attention to the analysis of the attributes and functions of things. Its advantages are that it is suitable for seeing the movement of material and spirit, grasping the relationship between the movement of things and people, making predictions and plans according to this relationship, using potential to find the best decision, and paying attention to thinking ability; Westerners' thinking is material thinking, taking "molecular theory" as the cornerstone, paying attention to discovering the internal composition of things and mastering the internal and external relations of things. The advantage is that it is suitable for creating new things and new functions according to the structure of things, and pays attention to creativity. Therefore, "molecular theory" has become a watershed between eastern and western cultures.