Chima Okoro 5/10/24 Masterpieces of Western Art Critical Response to Kwame Appiah’s “There is no such thing as Western civilization”. Kwame Anthony Appiah's article, There is no such thing as Western civilization, challenges the notion of the existence of the concept we refer to as “Western civilization”. By Western civilization, our society is referring to an idea of a distinct culture shared by the West, so Appiah firstly establishes a modern-day understanding of “culture” as a mix between two definitions from Matthew Arnold and Edward Tylor. Arnold defines it as the “pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world”; Tylor views …show more content…
There is no essence to being English and so it's simply an inaccurate label, just like the label of Western. Intuitively, this claim makes sense. For instance, currently, there is a popular awareness of distinctions between generations. Generations are seen to have many shared traits, while different generations are seen as fundamentally different from each other. This understanding can reasonably be extrapolated to the conclusion that, for instance, a Generation Z from Brazil shares more in common with a Generation Z from England than does that same Brazilian with a Brazilian Baby Boomer. By the same token but temporarily extended, Appiah concludes that English culture 600 years ago is fundamentally different from English culture now, a claim that aligns with our intuitive understanding of the past as compared to the present. For me, this point by Appiah raises an important discussion about geography as it relates to the grouping of people. Geography can influence the physical traits of people as well as cultural practices simply due to differences in environment and natural resources. From this understanding, it seems possible to form a concept of culture based on geography, though admittedly …show more content…
However, I do not think genetics matter outside of a shared human identity. If we start from that base that, like every civilization, we are simply humans, then culture emerges from shared values between people, allowing us to relate to any group of people. From this understanding, the concept of Western civilization paints too broad a brush to accurately encompass what it means to have shared values. This results in much ambiguity as to what it means to be a member of Western civilization, and so perhaps cynically, I begin to understand it as an euphemism for the distinction between the “civilized” and “uncivilized”. In my opinion, this idea of uncivilized societies is a gravely incorrect perception that leads to intolerance and discrimination, which only further divides our society. In conclusion, Kwame Appiah's thought-provoking article challenges the conventional understanding of Western civilization. Through examination of European history and cultural interactions, Appiah argues that the concept of Western civilization is a flawed construct that oversimplifies the diverse array of cultures, thoughts, and contributions to the “Western world”. Appiah argues for a conception of culture based on shared values between
Beckwith described many situations that would have us believe that certain aspects of other cultures have radically different moral values. The most predominant example he uses from philosopher James Rachels, agreeing with his claim he used over Eskimo culture and infanticide. In the Eskimo culture, it is a social and moral norm to kill a child to ensure the family’s survival. When looking at it from an ethnocentric view, many see that as morally wrong, but what Beckwith argues is that if we dig deeper and gain more knowledge of particular facts on these cultures that differences in cultures may not be too far off from our own. So from a morally objective standpoint, Beckwith believes that disagreements are overrated due to the lack of factual information and biases over issues.
Coffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. "CHAPTER 18 PAGES 668-669." Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 16TH ed. Vol. 2. New York, NY: W. W. Norton &, 2008. N. pag. Print.
Everyone has an ethnic background, whether it is Chinese or European, we all come from somewhere. Barbara Ehrenreich has come to the conclusion in her article “Cultural Baggage” that the race and religion of our ancestors should not be what defines us. While she agrees that everyone has different roots, she shows the reader that you do not have to be defined by your roots and that the traditions do not have to be followed.
“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves.”(Diamond 25) This statement is the thesis for Jared Diamond’s book Guns Germs and Steel the Fates of Human Societies.
Coffin, Judith G, et al. Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 17th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2011. Print.
Perry, Marvin, et al. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics and Society. 4th ed. Vol. I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.
After the Fall of Rome, a variety of people, ideas, and events influenced the history of Western Civilization. Whether it was Machiavellian political notions, the religious movements of the Protestant Reformation, or the Renaissance, each of these ideas provide particular foundational aspects of modern society. Charlemagne’s Carolingian Renaissance improved learning. The concept of the sovereignty of the state is another development that contributed to the modern West. Even though Western Civilization progressed as much as it did, the West had a formidable journey ahead.
Coffin, Judith G, et al. Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 17th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2011. Print.
The Western culture has evolved over a span of several years with various civilizations specializing in specific aspects of life or nature. In essence, Western civilization dates back to the BCE periods when Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Rome reigned. Each of the Western civilizations came with a clear lineage that portrayed such attributes as property rights, free market economy, competition, personal freedoms, and innovation (Perry, 2013). Besides, the western civilizations came at different periods with some of the attributes evolving or remaining unchanged throughout the lineage. However, the non-western civilizations contributed towards such attributes to a given extent, primarily because of the interactions among
Cole, Joshua, Judith G. Coffin, Carol Symes, and Robert Stacey. Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. Brief Third ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. Print.
The first example concerning the American male who was raised in China, accurately portrays the correlation between culture and biological inheritance in a real life circumstance. Although the male was American by blood, his facial expressions, mode of thought, and body language were all from Chinese decent. I know this to be true because genetically I am a full Jordanian. Both my father and mother were born in Jordan, but I was born in America. Because I was raised around an American lifestyle, when I visit my family in Jordan they mock my gestures and expressions because it is different than what they are accustomed to. Even though I look Jordanian, when I am in Jordan people can recognize that I don’t belong
In 1992 within a lecture Samuel P. Huntington proposed a theory that suggests that people's cultural and religious identities will undoubtedly be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world, this theory is known as the Clash of Civilizations. Therefore this essay provides a criticism of this theory, whether I agree or disagree with it and also the aspects I like or dislike about the theory as a whole.
Analysing The West: Unique, Not Universal. Throughout history, Western civilization has been an emerging force behind change in foreign societies. This is the concept that is discussed in the article, the West Unique, Not Universal, written by Samuel Huntington. The author makes a very clear thesis statement and uses a variety of evidence to support it. This article has a very convincing point.
Ethnic groups, their present and their future, are determined by factors like history, education, religion and politics. These factors build and shape the cultural identity of people and have a major effect in their way of thinking, lifestyle, behaviour, habits, morals, ideology, preferences, traditions, etc.” For this reason “what constitutes normal behavior is not the same to people of different social, economic, political and cultural backgrounds (Bayne, Jinks, Collard, Horton, 2008).
Roberts (1985) cited in Hall (1996, p.187) define the modern history as “…the approach march to the age dominated by the West". In order to have a better understanding on such definition, we must first observe the established meaning of the so-called “the West”. According to Hall, in the discourse of the West and the Rest, the concept of the West is not simply based on geographical location, but rather on a type of society arising in the sixteenth century in Europe which shared a number of simi...