Western civilization
European cultural tradition
Western civilization refers to the cultural, intellectual, and political traditions originating in ancient Greece and Rome, shaped by Christianity, and developed through European history.
It encompasses ideas like democracy, individual rights, the rule of law, and scientific inquiry.
The term often appears in debates about education and cultural identity: a course on Western civilization, defenders of Western civilization.
Critics note the concept can imply superiority over other traditions or obscure internal diversity.
- Judeo-Christian traditionShared biblical religious foundation
- Greek philosophyClassical Mediterranean intellectual tradition
- Roman EmpireAncient state from Augustus onward
- humanismPhilosophy prioritizing earthly reason
- Newtonian physicsTraditional laws of motion
classical architecture · symphonies · democracy · constitutional monarchy · rationalism · capitalism · free market · feudalism · empiricism · scientific method · Darwinian evolution · scholasticism · Reformation · common law · opera · Renaissance · liberalism · human rights
- WestWesternization, Occident, Europe, North America, United States
- EuropeAlbania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, France
- school subjectsmath, English, science, history, reading
- classicsHomer, Iliad, the Iliad, Odyssey, the Odyssey
Western civilizationChinese civilization
Han people's historical society
Islamic civilization · Far East · Global South · sub-Saharan Africa
Western civilizationindigenous cultures
Original inhabitants' ways of life
native cultures · indigenous peoples · First Nations · tribal cultures · tribal societies
Western civilizationancient civilizations
Societies of the distant past
western, civilization, westerly, westward, westernmost, civilize, civilized, civilizing, civil