Among academic realizations of Western Society developments, the interpretations of the West have been generally stating that Western civilization was shaped by the three particular traditions:
- The classical culture of Greece and Rome;
- The Christian religion, Western Christianity in particular;
- The Enlightenment of the modern era.
The fact is that, all these matters have been in some extent explained in the works by prominent ancient philosophers.
Taking into account the issues of religion in the derivations of western community, Lucretius, in his denunciation of religion was seeking to free the common man from slavery to the state worship. He believes, that, by what amounted to a conspiracy of silence, Varro and Cicero, who knew Lucretiusâ poem, refrained from mentioning him in their essays as they considered Lucretiusâ doctrine subversive. But Lucretius did not write for the masses. He wrote for all mankind weighted down by superstition and fear. The symbols of pontificate and the augurate on the coins of Caesar period, one of his chief media of propaganda, attest the significance of the official religion in the reorganization of state structure. The final step was taken when Caesar was enshrined among the official gods of the state and provided with a temple, a special priest, and festivals. The state religion, once an instrument used by the senatorial oligarchs to impose their supremacy on the people, had later, and particularly in the era of revolution, served rival groups in party politics. Now, in the control of a supreme ruler, it functioned to support a monarch numbered among the gods of the state.
The most well known follower of stoicism as one of the key notions in appearing of the Western Society as we got used to it, was Cicero. He stated that each human embodied the necessary distinction and interior freedom that were capable of overcoming the illogical acts that, in his outlook, were the forerunners of sicknesses.
Seneca encouraged the thinking man to rise above his attacks of passion and episodes of irascibility and rage, especially in times of moral corruption and oppressive rule. Health is achievable from within, he observed â a tenet that, many centuries later, was crucial to the philosophies of some Christian sects.
As for the Roman origins, one of the philosophers that provide the explanation of that origin is Sallust. He starts his argument of the scheme with several preliminary subsections to set the scene for his proper description.
Prior to a lengthy prefatory account of Rome’s rise to magnitude and its slide into extensive dishonesty, which itself is headed by a concise literary portrayal of Catiline’s nature, Sallust notifies the reader of his aim in writing his story, or account, and narrates a bit of his own unsatisfactory skill in the world of Roman political structure. Sovereignty can effortlessly be supported by the same qualities as facilitate a man to obtain it. But when redundancy reinstates industry, when self-control and justice give place to ache for and superiority, the moral decline brings loss of position in its train. A deteriorate leader is always displaced by a better man than himself.”
At first view Sallust turns to be finishing his argument of kings, or personal rulers. Though, it can be found that these words could be used nearly as well to the nature of the Republic in its post-Sullan period. Joblessness, covetousness and superiority are no less obvious in Sallust’s Republic than in the performance of a deteriorate king.
As a result, religion started playing significant role in the states of further generations. Christianity shaped Western civilization in many essential ways. Christian divinity stated the inviolability of the personal supporter and called for compliance to an authority (Christ) more superior than any secular ruler (Caesar), thoughts that further improved and maintained the notion of freedom under law. Christian institutes, chiefly the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church in its ongoing resist with the Holy Roman Emperor and local monarchs, bestowed to the West the thought of a division, and therefore a restriction, of authorities.
The contemporary Enlightenment, which provided the ideas of liberal democracy, the free market, and the belief in reason and science as the privileged means for making sense of the world can be regarded as the final factor, which shaped the western society. This was the case with regard to the Industrial Revolution and the different responses to it: both state guidance of the economy and Marxist ideology played a much greater role on the Continent than in Britain or the United States.
Prior to a lengthy prefatory account of Rome’s rise to magnitude and its slide into extensive dishonesty, which itself is headed by a concise literary portrayal of Catiline’s nature, Sallust notifies the reader of his aim in writing his story, or account, and narrates a bit of his own unsatisfactory skill in the world of Roman political structure. Sovereignty can effortlessly be supported by the same qualities as facilitate a man to obtain it. But when redundancy reinstates industry, when self-control and justice give place to ache for and superiority, the moral decline brings loss of position in its train. A deteriorate leader is always displaced by a better man than himself.”