Defining Western Civilization - Essay Example

Western Civilization Lessons Learned Every individual across the world should understand his culture well. For example, a Pakistan who only reads English cannot be termed as a complete balanced individual. It becomes highly challenging to make a good living in this world if one is knowledgeable with only one culture. People should make an effort of familiarizing themselves with almost all cultural practices across the world. Being able to live and adapt different cultures will make it easy for any individual to travel and live in many countries. On the other hand, people should have knowledge about the Western Civilization to overcome the danger of becoming a paranoid. Important lesson learned here is that if one lives in the West, he should understand the Western culture very well especially the real civilization. In order to understand the entire cultural practices well, one should make an effort of attending musical classes, make a good relationship with the western scientists, and learn the philosophy well. For those who live in the United States, they have a clear knowledge about the society, and the kind of work people do there. High Points of the Course Defining Western Civilization Western Civilization is a combination various cultural practices, government systems, religions, values, heritages, and customs. It defines elements like, philosophy, spiritual believes, and cultural practices of western people. According to Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Western Civilization is all practices of western and central Europeans, which include North, and South America, and Australia. All this contributed to growth of overall globalization. Western Civilization evolved over the centuries. Although development of Western Civilization did not occur during the time of Mesopotamians and Egyptians, their way of writing and different roles concerning gender was what Western Civilization became. Due the growth of Christianity with the late Romans Empire, many Europeans started viewing themselves as part of Civilization. Historians have described the political liberty concept, individual beliefs, and system logical outlook as aspects of the Western Civilization. The Dating of Time For the students to have better performance in the exams, they should have a clear understanding of Dating of Time. When writing about past events or history of something, one should quote the exact dates when that event occurred. For Example, the European World War II started on September 1, 1939 and lasted until May 7, 1945. The use of dates is to put occurrence of events in the right order to know the development of events over a certain period. This dating of events also varies with historians. This is because some of the Western people use the Western calendar while others use the Hebrews calendar, which is extremely different from the western calendar. The first year of the Hebrews calendar is equivalent to year 3760 of the Western calendar. The most enjoyable part of the course The most enjoyable part of the course was the history of marriage in Western Civilization. The Romans, Hebrews, and Germanic people practiced they own marriage cultures. Marriage was an economical arrangement meaning that those getting married had no room to engage themselves in romantic love. In many of Western History, marriage was a matter involving only the husband and wife, but it was a concern of the two families, which brought them together. Parents were the ones to make choices of the men to marry their daughters. The married women usually had limited rights in the family than the husbands who were the head of the family. The women were to be the sub servants of their husbands. Surprisingly, granting someone divorce was easy because men had an advantage of marrying as many wives as they want. Marriage in Medieval Europe Introduction of Christianity in Europe brought a fabulous change in Europeans culture of marriage, although this change took long to take its roots. Although Roman law affected Christianity, it finally took its part to regulate divorce. This is because Christianity valued virginity, and sexual abuse in marriage. Christianity also summed up the traditional laws whereby the unmarried and childless received some punishment. Due to Christianity, marriage changed a lot under the influence of the church. However, Christianity brought about two negative effects on marriage. It banned divorce in marriage an idea that increased the number of marriage indifferences. Marriage also abolished the practice of marrying two related relatives. One could not marry close relative than a third cousin. The most admirable civilization era Among the three civilization eras namely Pre-Modernism, Modern, and Post-Modernism, Modernism was the one I mostly admired. The modernism era incorporates both the ancient and medieval eras. Modernism evolved in the seventeenth century due to the scientific revolution. After scientific revolution, Naturalism, which was parallel with any supernatural belief evolved. It was during the nineteenth century when Charles Darwin published his book, which explained the Rational and Naturalistic for the universe. During this era, it was people’s belief that, man was able to find the truth using logic, and reasoning apart from God. During this era, history was seen as the man’s attempt to find the truth about revolution. Importance of studying Western Civilization It is of note for students to learn Western Civilization in schools because it makes the students understand their political, social, and legal development centuries. People use Western Civilization as the government’s test-bed from oligarchy, aristocracy, to democracy. Students cannot understand their countries independence without having knowledge about Greek, Medieval, and Roman Political thought. Additionally, taking a history class especially about Western Civilization, one will be able to understand peoples’ comments at parties. One will have a good understanding about art, religion, and Greeks and Romans early cultural practices. Moreover, students will be able to define the significance and importance of gprominent individuals, and events in Western History. They will clearly understand the general geography of Western History. They will also understand the important rules at work in the Western Civilization History, and have the ability to analyze sources of history and make some conclusion depending of those analyses. By studying Western Civilization, students will understand the origin of the western laws and justice system. This will enable the students understand the beginning of the civilize societies. By studying Romans Civilization, we understand how a society can rise and later fall because of social and political indifferences. How is Western Civilization History contributed to the current civilization The Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans played an influential role in shaping the current Western Civilization. They left the legacy of Religion, knowledge, and government policy. The Hebrews took part in contributing the aspect of religion, Greeks contributed about knowledge and government while the Romans emphasized that one must have a good understanding of the ancient Greek’s cultural practices. They even made considerations on the governing methods of the Western Civilization. Without the efforts of Hebrews and Greeks, the West would not have been the same. The Jewish introduced concepts of morality, personal improvement, and methods of improving one’s existence. Due to these innovations, the Hebrews got a chance of changing their into today’s Civilization. Israel is the best when it comes to military and economic development. Work Cited Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Read More