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Greek Philosophy Influence on Western Culture
When people refer to western culture, we mean a large range of heritages including social norms, traditional customs, religions beliefs, political system, art fine, literature and technologies. Now western culture has its own particular framework which has been developing till now, and traditional western culture is said to be affected by three main factors: Ancient Greek, Roman Empire, and Christianity. However, the Greek civilization contributed greatly to the development of modern western culture, then, what were the contributions to western culture from the ancient Greeks? In the following part, let us get to talk about Greek influence on western culture in detail from three aspects.
First, Greek influences Western philosophy. As a shining point of Greek culture, philosophy made a great contribution to the western culture, even the whole world. Classical Greek philosophy or early Greek philosophy focused on the debated and question tasks. In many ways, it paved the road for modern science and modern philosophy, especially for western countries. Early Greek philosophers’ impact on future generations has never stopped from the early Muslim philosophy to the Renaissance, to the Enlightenment and the modern general science. At that time, there appeared many famous philosophers, such as, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Socrates (470BC-399BC) was a philosopher of Athens, becoming the most important idol of the Western philosophical tradition. Plato (427BC-347BC), who was taught by Socrates, was a very influential classical Greek philosopher. His most famous work The Republic described his fantasy of “perfect state”. The other important philosopher is Aristotle, who was taught by Plato. Aristotle’ works still exist today in paper form and the most important ones include physics, metaphysics, ethics, political science and poetry. All of those three philosophers are known as the most important persons in the western countries.
Second, Greek influences in the entertainment: In Ancient Greek, people knew how to entertain themselves, such as by watching dramas, holding sports meeting. As we all know, Olympic Games has been popular from the past till now. It originated in Athens and the Games prompted the passion of the athletics. From the Olympic Games, we can see easily Greek influence in sports, which entertain people.
Third, Greek influences literature. Ancient Greek literature is the source of the whole western literature and also the first peak in European literature. Referring to western literature, we cannot forget Greek mythology, which have a beautiful and rich imagination, vivid images and moving stories. Greek mythology has far-reaching implications in English literary works, or we can say English literary works are fulfilled with Greek mythology, such as Pandora’s Box, Cupid’s arrow and so on. Additionally, poems, such as Iliad and Odyssey, played an important role in western culture. If we do not understand Greek mythology, it is impossible to better understand, learn about Western culture.
In conclude, no matter in philosophy, entertainment or literature, Greek has had a great impact on the development of western culture, and it is no wonder that Ancient Greek is considered as the main origin of the western culture.