R. G. Collingwood wrote:

(The Idea of History, 215 & 317)

        What is Western Civilization?  (Or, 'Who are we?')  Is Western Culture somehow special, even unique, in World History?  Does it contain recognizable, noteworthy characteristics?  Or should it be included as simply one more of the many cultures of the world, as does the 'comparative' approach in the study of World History?  Is Western culture withering away?  How has it changed over time?  Is Western Civilization better than other civilizations?  Is it worse?  Are such considerations to be rejected as ethnocentric?

        In other words, what is Western Civ, and why should we study it?

       The above questions have occupied people's minds over many centuries.  Herodotos, who invented the term 'history,' studied many cultures but consistently found his own western Greek [Athenian] culture superior to all others.  Herodotos' successor in the field, Thucydides, studied other cultures as well, and located the culture most destructive, hypocritical, and above all, irrational in his own western, Greek [Athenian] culture.  Is the west both the worst and the best? Is the very assigning of such high distinctions to the west arrogant and self-serving? Before these questions can be addressed, a definition and set of characteristics must be sought.

               A textbook definition:

        There are three major themes whose development and interplay have shaped the distinctive characteristics that set Western civilization apart from the other great historic cultures. They are the growth of a tradition of rational scientific inquiry, the persistence of a tension between Judaeo-Christian religious ideals and social realities, the emergence of constitutional forms of government.

       -- Joint statement of introduction by Brian Tierney, Donald Kagan and L. Pearce Williams (Great Issues in Western Civilization, 2 vols., N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1992), p. xi.

          These three unique, defining characteristics of Western Civilization (rationality, tensions between religious and socio-political realities, constitutionalism) encompass other related features:

1. growth of rational inquiry
   • Classical Legacy of study, education and presentation in the areas of philosophy, history, literature, communication skills, poetry, sciences like biology, astronomy, medicine, geometry, mathematics, music, politics, logic, grammar, Just War Theory,
   • the continuing desire to inquire and to question: critical thinking
     • Pluralism (social, economic, political and intellectual)
     • Liberalism (a growing and changing concept)
     • Tolerance and Discernment rationally concerning non-tolerance
   • ethics and/or morality not directly tied to religion, tradition or authority
   • exploration of the relationship between human and divine, faith and reason
   • individualism (which has drawn sustenance from all three of these W Civ characteristics yet has had, and still has, an uneven existence)
   • freedom within higher education
   • technology improving the material standard of living across the social spectrum
   • human realism in art, along with innumerable explorations into various (and often opposed) genres of art, music, architecture, sculpture
   • explicit study and use of both deductive and inductive reasoning
   • the Greek alphabet and/or Greek language
   • concepts of progress and/or regress in all these themes and in terms of change itself

2. tension between Judaeo-Christian religious ideals and social-political realities
   • Nathan vs David
   • Jesus, on giving to Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is God's
   • Bishop Ambrose vs Emperor Theodosius
   • Investiture Conflict through to the U.S. First Amendment
   • Linked with #1, rational:  exploration of the relationship between human and divine, faith and reason
   • Separation of religious and secular life in government
   • Religion and secular government as checks-and-balances on each other
   • Guarantees of individuals' rights to free speech in these areas
   • Academic freedom from Abelard onward

3. constitutional forms of government
   • democracy
   • republic
   • oligarchy
   • absolutisms (qualified or justified on constitutional grounds)
   • rule of law
   • equality before the law
   • concept of a citizen rather than a subject
   • freedom of citizens
   • equality
   • limited government, and codifying those limitations as law
   • free scrutiny and questioning of these and any other position
   • representative government
   • individual liberty
   • concepts of human rights
   • politics as a shared endeavor
   • free market/enterprise concepts
   • commune-type government
   • Becket from the church (#2 above) side & Magna Carta from the lay side placeed limits on arbitrary power, provided protections for citizens

           These above themes or characteristics can provide footholds for research, for further inquiries that may help to sort out the questions about Western Civilization -- its uniqueness or not, its admirable qualities as Herodotos saw, and/or those qualities we need to see and avoid, as Thucydides tried to show.

             This approach -- questioning the definition and worth of the West -- will help to structure our study and research into this topic -- a topic often accepted as worthy on little more than tradition -- and sometimes rejected on equally thoughtless grounds.  

       A better approach to studying Western Civilization will follow a great  [in my mind]  western thinker of the 12th century, Abelard, who wrote in his  Sic et Non:   "By doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry, we grasp truth."

        Various answers will result, no doubt. There is no absolute answer, no sure way to respond to these questions.  Discussions will result.  Evidence will emerge. Reasons for supporting this and that position will arise.  Opposed arguments will destroy some positions only to be challenged in turn.  Passions may arise.  Reading and thinking may result. Minds will change, and change again over time.  And change again....

        When we are done, we might know better who we were and what we did, who we are now (Are we the jumble implied in the collage below, or are there cultural themes that unite us?), and finally, perhaps gain a better idea about who we will become. Dare to Know!

Markowski @ Westminster