Western Civilization - Essay Example

The Greeks were not the first civilization to wonder about these matters or to explore them, but they made answering these questions such a fundamental part of their cultural experience that they attained a very high level of intellectual advancement across all these areas. Their curiosity and experiments contributed to the development of Western civilization. Thornton is especially interested in the ways that the Greek civilization laid the foundation for modern-day scientific and political thought.

            Scientifically, Greek philosophers laid the cornerstone for modern Western science. Long before the Manhattan Project and nuclear physics, the Greek philosopher Democritus argued that the world was made of tiny particles he called atoms. The Greeks were interested in what things were made of: A pencil was a pencil, but what was the pencil made of? Well, wood. And what was the wood made of? Though their answers weren’t always right, asking the questions was the most important step. And often, they were right: Anaximander theorized that the earth was round (basing this theory on the shadow it casts on the moon during an eclipse) centuries before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The Greeks based their theories on a combination of scientific observation and rational thought, two things that form the basis of Western scientific innovation today. Most importantly, though, the Greeks gave Western science a passion for understanding the way that things work, and a willingness to make guesses and efforts in pursuit of that goal.

            The Western notion of government also owes much to the Greek model. Plato’s Republic outlines the model for a utopian society in which people are divided into groups based on labor (artisans, or producers of goods; guardians, such as the military; and rulers, who come from the military). Plato’s work is interesting because it is a very early communist work (in his Republic, there is no private property, and class is determined based on individual worth, not birth status). Plato wanted to create a ruling system in which the government maximized human happiness; a concept that formed the cornerstone of many governments founded in the post-Greek era. The Declaration of Independence of the United States, for instance, includes the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as ideals that governments are created to protect. Aristotle, too, was interested in how the government could enhance, rather than hinder, life for its citizens. Aristotle believed that the best governments considered the public good, while the worst governments put private interests first. Aristotle thought that rule by the poor (what he called democracy), rule by the rich (oligarchy), and tyranny were the worst forms of government. He advocated leadership by a single benevolent individual (monarchy), group of individuals (aristocracy), or the people as a whole (polity). His political divisions and their historical mutations are the backbones of legislative branches and executive leadership around the world.