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The term Western world or "the West" can have multiple meanings depending on its context. Originally defined as Western Europe, most modern uses of the term refer to the societies of Europe and their close genealogical, linguistic, and philosophical colonial descendants, typically included are those countries whose dominant culture is derived from European culture, such as North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.
At different times and in different contexts, the definition of the West (also on rare occasions called the Occident) varies. Even definitions of what constitutes the West today vary. To define what is typical of modern Western society and Western culture is hindered by the lack of a clear definition and the dichotomy between Western Christian and Western secular thought.
Historical divisions
- Hellenic
- Roman
- Christian
Cold War
During the Cold War, a new definition emerged. The Earth was divided into three "worlds". The First World was composed of NATO members and other countries aligned with the United States. The Second World was the Eastern bloc in the Soviet sphere of influence, including the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries. The Third World consisted of countries unaligned with either, and important members include India, Yugoslavia and for a time the People's Republic of China, though some find it expedient to group the latter two under Second World because of their communist ideology.
There were a number of countries which did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, and the Republic of Ireland, which chose to be neutral. Finland was under the Soviet Union's sphere of influence but remained neutral, was not communist, nor was it a member of the Warsaw Pact or Comecon. In 1955, when Austria again became a fully independent republic, it did so under the condition that it remained neutral, but as a country to the west of the Iron Curtain, it was in the United States sphere of influence. Turkey was a member of NATO but was not usually regarded as either part of the First or Western worlds. Spain did not join NATO until 1982, towards the end of the Cold War and after the death of the authoritarian Franco. The Western world became a synonym for the first world but included the West European exceptions mentioned earlier in this paragraph and excluded Turkey.
Further definitions
As the term "Western world" does not have a strict international definition, Governments do not use the term in legislation of international treaties and instead rely on other definitions. If the term is used in academic articles it tends to be reserved for use in articles about those areas and times where the Western Roman Empire had a direct influence.
The term "Western world" is often interchangeable with the term First World stressing the difference between First World and the Third World or developing countries. The term "The North" has in some contexts replaced earlier usage of the term "the west", particularly in the critical sense, as a more robust demarcation than "west" and "east". The North provides some absolute geographical indicators for the location of wealthy countries, most of which are physically situated in the Northern Hemisphere, although, as most countries are located in the northern hemisphere in general, some have considered this distinction to be equally unhelpful. The thirty countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which include: the EU , Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan, generally include what used to be called the "first world" or the "developed world", although the OECD includes a few countries, namely Turkey and Mexico, that are not wealthy industrial countries. The existence of "The North" implies the existence of "The South", and the socio-economic divide between North and South. Although Israel, Singapore,Taiwan and Hong Kong are not members of the OECD, they might also be regarded as "west" or "north" countries, because their high living standards and their social, economical and political structure are quite similar to those of the OECD member countries.
The "West" may also be used as a cultural and social reference to "Western society". In this context both Latin America and the Philippines may be considered part of the West, particularly in writings on high art and literature. See: Western civilization. [http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.11413/pub_detail.asp
The "West" may also be used pejoratively by those especially critical of the influence of the West and its history of imperialism and colonialism.
Ethnocentric definitions of the term Western world are definitions constructed around one of the Western cultures. The British writer Rudyard Kipling wrote about this contrast: East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, expressing that somebody from the West can never understand the Asian cultures as the latter differ too much from the Western cultures.
In the Near East or Middle East, (both terms relative to Europe as being in the west), the distinction between Western Europe and Eastern Europe is of less importance; countries that western Europeans might think of as part of Eastern Europe, i.e. Russia, might be counted as Western in the Middle East, in the sense of being both European and Christian. People from the West are known by many in the East and Middle East as "Westerners".
Culturally, many Latin Americans, particularly Argentines and Uruguayans, and to a lesser extent Brazilians and Chileans, firmly consider themselves Westerners. Although most Western Europeans and North Americans would probably not include Latin Americans in their concept of Western. This happens mainly due to racist misconceptions and due to the fact that in Latin America, europeans mixed with aboriginal populations. In time, this may create, due to the resentment this attitude produces in the "Forgotten Westeners of the Southern Cone", a hybrid culture of their own.
Other views
A series of scholars of civilization, including Arnold Toynbee, Alfred Kroeber and Carroll Quigley have identified and analyzed "Western civilization" as one of the civilizations that have historically existed and still exist today. Most recently, in 1993, Samuel P. Huntington has appropriated these studies in order to forge a political science prophecy he labelled the "The Clash of Civilizations?" in a Foreign Affairs article and a book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, in 1996. According to Huntington's prophecy, what he calls "conflicts between civilizations" will be the primary tensions of the 21st century world. In this prophecy, the West is based on religion, as the countries of western and central Europe historically influenced by two forms of Western Christianity, namely Catholicism and Protestantism, together with the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Huntington's thesis was influential, but was by no means universally accepted; its supporters say that it explains modern conflicts, such as those in the former Yugoslavia; the thesis' detractors fear that by equating values like democracy with "Western civilization", it reinforces racist and/or xenophobic notions about "non-Western" societies, as well as blatantly ignoring non-Western democracies.
In Huntington's thesis, the historically Eastern Orthodox nations of southeastern and eastern Europe constitute a distinct "Euro-Asiatic civilization"; although European and Christian, these nations were not, in Huntington's view, shaped by the cultural influences of the Renaissance. The Renaissance did not affect Orthodox Eastern Europe due to Ottoman domination, despite the decisive influence of Greek emigré scholars such as Georgios Gemistos Plethon, Manuel Chrysoloras, Theodorus of Gaza, Ioannis Argyropoulos, Markos Mousouros and Demetrius Chalcondyles on it. The Renaissance was weak in predominantly Catholic Hungary because its Ottoman rulers sought to limit Austria's influence in the region. Some claim the reforms of Peter the Great (1682-1725) and Catherine II the Great (1762-96) were inspired by the Enlightenment. However, they departed considerably from the Enlightenment idea of respect for the individual: Peter's projects for St Petersburg cost the lives of 30,000 workers, and under both Peter and Catherine most Russians remained serfs.
Huntington also considered the possibility that South America is a separate civilization from the West, but also mused that it might become a third part (the first two being North America and Europe) of the West in the future.
Western life and thought
Western countries have in common a high average material standard of living, compared to the rest of the world. They often also have democracy, rule of law and developed bodies of laws that have some expression of rights for citizens in law. In addition, moderate levels of education, and a similar, "modern" popular culture may reflect the Western or Westernized society. Militarily and diplomatically, these Western societies have generally been allied with each other to one degree or another since World War II.
The term Western thought is at times unhelpful, since it can define two separate (although related) sets of traditions and values: Firstly, the Christian (or Western Christian) moral tradition and religious values; Secondly, secular values, often with a rationalist anti-clerical tradition.
Some ideas that might be considered cornerstones of Western tradition are: Christianity, secularism, rational deductive reasoning, rule of law, esteem for human civilization, the development of science and technology. The Enlightenment has had a major influence in the western thought over the last two centuries.
The Debate over Greek Origins
Western society is sometimes claimed to trace its cultural origins to both Greek thought and Christian religion, thus following an evolution that began in ancient Greece, continued through the Roman Empire and, with the coming of Christianity (which has its origins in the Middle East), spread throughout Europe.However, the conquest of the western parts of the Roman Empire by Germanic peoples and the subsequent advent of despotism in the form of dominance by the Western Christian Papacy (which held combined political and spiritual authority, a state of affairs absent from Greek civilization in all its stages), resulted into a rupture of the previously existing ties between the Latin West and Greek thought Charles Freeman. The Closing of the Western Mind. Knopf, 2003. ISBN 140004085X, including Christian Greek thought. The Great Schism and the Fourth Crusade confirmed this deviation. Hence, the Medieaval West is limited to Western Christendom only, as the Greeks and other European peoples not under the authority of the Papacy are not included in it. The clearly Greek-influenced form of Christianity, Orthodoxy, is more linked to Eastern than Western Europe. On the other hand, the Modern West, emerging after the Renaissance as a new civilization, has been influenced by (its own interpretation of) Greek thought, which was preserved in the Byzantine Empire during the Medieval West's Dark Ages and transmitted therefrom by emigré scholars. Morever, European peoples not included in Western Christendom, such as the Greeks, have redefined their relationship to this new, secular, variant of Western civilization, and increasingly participate in it in since then.
Therefore, the idea of Western society being influenced from (but not being the single evolution of) ancient Greek thought makes sense only for the post-Renaissance period of Western history.
The philosopher Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy, accepted the idea of the West as the heir to ancient Greek and Jewish culture, but went on to treat Islam and Marxism as developments within Western culture.
Christianity
In the 20th Century, Christianity declined in influence in many western countries, in Europe and elsewhere. Secularism became increasingly important. However, while church attendance is in decline, most westerners still identify themselves as Christians (e.g. 70% in the UK) and occasionally attend church on major occasions. In the so-called Bible Belt of the Southern United States religion and religious fundamentalism are important.During the colonial era, western thought might be said to have been implanted in the Americas and in Australasia.
Religious schism
In the early 4th century, the Emperor Constantine the Great established the city of Constantinople as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Empire included lands east of the Adriatic Sea and bordering on the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of the Black Sea. These two divisions of the Eastern and Western Empires were reflected in the administration of the Christian Church, with Rome and Constantinople debating and arguing over whether either city was the capital of Christianity (see Great Schism). As the eastern and western churches spread their influence, the line between "East" and "West" can be described as moving, but generally followed a cultural divide that was defined by the existence of the Byzantine empire and the fluctuating power and influence of the church in Rome. Some, including Huntington, theorized that this cultural division still existed during the Cold War as the approximate western boundary of those countries that were allied with the Soviet Union ; others have criticized these views on the basis that they confuse the Eastern Roman Empire with Russia, especially considering the fact that the country that had the most historical roots in Byzantium, Greece, was allied with the West during the Cold War.
Criticism
Attacks on Western values can be as far as some nineteenth century revolutionary or naturalist philosophers such as Nietzsche, Marx, Godwin and Bakunin (mainly through their strong criticism of religion, puritan morality and authoritarian politics); while the whole Western subculture movement has mainly flourished in the decades following the First World War, as a more general criticism towards the modernist school of thinking and values, which was reflected in the "Beat" movement, the Dada movement, Existentialism in Europe and the situationalist critique. This countercultural movement eventully led to the post-modernist thinking and values. Many people in today's Western world also advocate Islamic values or Asian values as a reaction towards the more conventional values of the Western world, asserting that there are a coherent set of traits that define the West, but those traits are inferior and are usually associated with moral decline, greed, and decadence. Some who hold this view are concerned about the Westernization of the rest of the world, or concerned about the era of New Age thinkers who sometimes attempts to adapt Eastern traditions in a Western context.
Asian values in particular criticise a perceived Western emphasis on the individual to the detriment of society as a whole. Another common critic of Western civilisation is its emphasis on materialistic values, as it fails to truly give meaning to individual's lives as well as forming a cohesive and sane social bond between citizens.
It should also be noted that until recently, historians and other scholars were unaware of the influence of Islamic civilization on the Western European Enlightenment, such as the contribution of algebra, astronomy and chemistry; as do they also failed to recognize the influence of Middle-Eastern and Egyptian societies on the Greek civilization, that is regarded by most scholars as the common-place source of the modern Western civilization.
Since the countries in the "West" were generally those that explored and colonized outside of Europe, the term Western became, to some people, associated with European colonialism. However, empires are obviously not a particularly Western phenomenon.
Many African Americans converted to the Nation of Islam or Islam due to early American Christianity's role in keeping slaves and former slaves in check. Although not reflective of Christianity's teachings, often European Americans would encourage Christianity among blacks due to Jesus' teachings of non-violence, something not strictly adhered to in Western Christian thought, a hypocrisy that, combined with Africa's traditional leaning toward Islam, leads many young African Americans, even today, to feel that Islam is more reflective of their values.
Quotes
- "I think it would be a good idea." — Response to "What is your opinion of Western civilization?", a quotation popularly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi.
- "It is an elastic idea; it fits all men. It implies a certain kind of society, a certain kind of awakened spirit. I don't imagine my father's Hindu parents would have been able to understand the idea. So much is contained in it: the idea of the individual, responsibility, choice, the life of the intellect, the idea of vocation and perfectibility and achievement. It is an immense human idea. It cannot be reduced to a fixed system. It cannot generate fanaticism. But it is known to exist, and because of that, other more rigid systems in the end blow away.", said by V.S. Naipaul in 1990. *
See also
References
- J.F.C. Fuller. A Military History of the Western World. Three Volumes. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1987 and 1988.
- v. 1. From the earliest times to the Battle of Lepanto; ISBN 0306803046.
- v. 2. From the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Waterloo; ISBN 0306803054.
- v. 3. From the American Civil War to the end of World War II; ISBN 0306803062.
عالم غربي | Westliche Welt | Läänemaailm | Occidente | Okcidenta civilizo | Occident | Dunia Barat | Occidente (civiltà) | העולם המערבי | Vakarų pasaulis | Westerse wereld | 西洋 | Oksidenten | Cywilizacja zachodu | Mundo Ocidental | Western world | Västvärlden
"Western world"