Characteristics of Western Civilization can be found in many different ancient civilizations. Ancient Greece has had the most influence on western civilization. Aspects of western civilization such as philosophy, Western values, and science were all influenced by ancient Greek. The roots of western civilization can be traced back to four thousand years ago, in ancient Greece. Philosophy opened a whole different way of thinking.
Many of the roots of modern intellectual ideas and philosophies have stemmed from the ideas and philosophies of the ancient Greeks. While many other cultures had some impact, the Greeks most definitely had the most influence on modern math and science. Most notably, “the three Athenians that would come to dominate philosophy for the next 2000 years: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle”(p8). These three philosophers, along with many others from in or around ancient Greece set the foundation for Western intellect today. The communication abilities and location of ancient Greece allowed them to not only gather information about the ideas of diverse cultures around the world but also to have skepticism about the information and determine what was true.
His books also contain geometric algebra which help solve algebraic sums such as finding the square root of a number. Euclid’s type of geometry is called Euclidean geometry and is composed of elements. Euclid introduced the principals of geometry and its foundations. His work of elements has long been regarded as one of the most influential works in mathematics. His work of elements was such a major discovery in mathematics that he is rarely called anything other than ‘The Author of Elements’ by his peers and other
“Pythagoras discovered that a complete system of mathematics could be constructed, where geometric elements corresponded with numbers, and where integers and their ratios were all that was necessary to establish an entire system of logic and truth” (“Greek Mathematics, 6). The Pythagorean theorem was originally just used to find the sides of a right triangle, but now is used on any shape. Pythagoras discovered “that, for any right-angled triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the longest side, opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides (or “legs”). Written as an equation: a2 + b2 = c2”(“Greek Mathematics”,3). Little did Pythagoras and his followers know that this formula would be used for years to come.
The famous theorem ‘Pythagoras’ was proved on his first book. On the other hand, he defined divisibility, prime numbers, GCD and also proved several properties of these notations. Euclid came up with the algorithm for finding gcd of two numbers using repeated division. Looking his work on “solid geometry he proved the existence of five regular polyhedral, tetrahedron, cube, octahedron and icosahedron”. Euclid is a famous Greek mathematician but he is “not a first rated but he was the first mathematician to realize that proof and reasoning were as important as the statement of the theorem”.
However up until 500 BCE, the concept of Democracy was a foreign concept, and the great civilizations of that era were run by monarchs, aristocrats, and religious leaders of sorts. The term, Democracy, stems from the Greek word ‘demokratia’ which means rule by the people and it wasn’t until around 500 BCE in Athens where the first examples of democracy originated. While Athens is widely regarded as the first historical example of a democratic system, some scholars believe that the Roman Empire’s republic system was more democratic than that of the Greek. As I will come to
The classical Greeks contributed to, and influenced Western Civilization in several ways. For example, the classical Greeks contributed in many ways in the areas of the arts, both in visual pictures and physical sculptures. They also advanced greatly in both mathematics and science, most notably geometry and medical sciences. As well as this, they influenced Western Civilization through their philosophical thoughts and studies. While all of these contributions are significant to Western Civilization, the most important contribution is the development of a democratic government.
Socrates was an Athenian philosopher; he was known to be the founder of Western philosophy. He is known from the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon. We have come to know through Plato’s writing about the contributions of Socrates in the field of ethics. He became famous because of his work related to ethics. Socrates has also worked in the field of epistemology.
Many individuals often as the question in their mind, “Who is the real Socrates?” Socrates never wrote philosophical text, his knowledge and philosophies were expresses based on the writings of his students such as Xenophon, Aristotle and Plato. Plato has been the most influential and valuable of all his students, based on Socrates philosophy and life. Plato was born in Athens, Greece in 427 BC. He was known as the “divine teacher”. He founded the first institution of higher learning in the Western world which was called, “The Academy”.
Thales of Miletus is the first proper philosopher in ancient Greece, the founder and the father of ionic school of ancient Greek Philosophy. Thales believed that the principle of all things is water, that all of things is came from water, and to water they returns. He believed that the earth is a flat disc, which floats upon water. Most philosophers in ancient Greece are Materialists which they believed that all things are