OUR CULTURE

Unixploria is Part of the Western Culture

Western culture, also referred to as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, or Western society, encompasses a diverse range of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political structures, artifacts, and technologies developed in the Western world. The foundations of Western civilization can be traced back to the Greco-Roman civilization and the principles of Western Christianity. Societal contributions from Germanic peoples have significantly influenced it.

Western culture is a broad term not referring to a specific geographical area. It usually encompasses the cultures of countries with historical ties to one or more European countries, as well as the diverse range of European cultures. However, countries in the eastern part of Europe are often not included in the definitions of the Western world.

During the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, the idea of Europe as a cultural sphere emerged. It was not just a geographic term anymore. This new concept included most of the territories that practiced Western Christianity then. However, from a Western European perspective, "Europe" did not encompass the regions where the Orthodox Church or Islam was the dominant religion until the 19th century.

Themes of Western Culture

Western culture has developed many themes and traditions, the most significant of which are:

• Preeminent authors and philosophers, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and a long mythological tradition heavily influenced the Greco-Roman arts, architecture, philosophy, and culture.

• Christian ethical, philosophical, and mythological tradition stems mainly from the Christian Bible, particularly the New Testament Gospels.

• Monasteries, schools, libraries, books, bookmaking, universities, teaching, education, and lecture halls.

• A tradition of the importance of the rule of law.

• Secular humanism, rationalism, and Enlightenment thought. This set the basis for a new critical attitude and open questioning of religion, favoring freethinking and questioning of the church as an authority, which resulted in open-minded and reformist ideals inside, such as liberation theology, which partly adopted these currents, and secular and political tendencies such as separation of church and state (sometimes termed laicism), agnosticism and atheism.

• Generalized usage of some form of the Latin or Greek alphabet and derived forms, such as Cyrillic, used by those southern and eastern Slavic countries of Christian Orthodox tradition, historically under the Byzantine Empire and later within the Russian czarist or the Soviet area of influence. Other Latin or Greek alphabet variants are found in the Gothic and Coptic alphabets, which historically superseded older scripts, such as runes and the Egyptian Demotic and Hieroglyphic systems.

• Natural law, human rights, constitutionalism, parliamentarian (or presidential), and formal liberal democracy in recent times—before the 19th century, most Western governments were still monarchies.

• A significant influence, in modern times, of many of the ideals and values developed and inherited from Romanticism.

• An emphasis on and use of science to understand the natural world and humanity's place in it.

• More pronounced use and application of innovation and scientific developments, as well as a more rational approach to scientific progress (known as the scientific method).