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[[Image:Plato Pio-Clemetino Inv305.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Plato]], arguably the most influential figure in early [[Western philosophy]], has influenced virtually all of subsequent Western and [[Middle Eastern]] [[philosophy]] and [[theology]]]]
 
'''Western culture''', also known as '''Western civilization''', '''European civilization''', '''Occidental culture''', or '''Western society''', includes the diverse [[Cultural heritage|heritages]] of [[social norms]], [[ethical value]]s, [[Mores|traditional customs]], [[belief systems]], [[political system]]s, [[Cultural artifact|artifacts]] and [[technology|technologies]] of the [[Western world]]. Anthropologically, the term "Western" refers to the [[Classical antiquity|classical era]] culture that arose in [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome]], and later spread to different parts of the world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hanson |first=Victor Davis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C |title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power |date=2007-12-18 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-42518-8 |quote="the term "Western" — refer to the culture of classical antiquity that arose in Greece and Rome; survived the collapse of the Roman Empire; spread to western and northern Europe; then during the great periods of exploration and colonization of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries expanded to the Americas, Australia and areas of Asia and Africa; and now exercises global political, economic, cultural, and military power far greater than the size of its territory or population might otherwise suggest." |language=en}}</ref> The core of Western civilization, broadly defined, is formed by the combined foundations of [[Greco-Roman world|Greco-Roman civilization]] and [[Christianity]].<ref name="grecoroman1">{{multiref2
'''Western culture''', also known as '''Western civilization''', '''European civilization''', '''Occidental culture''', or '''Western society''', includes the diverse [[Cultural heritage|heritages]] of [[social norms]], [[ethical value]]s, [[Mores|traditional customs]], [[belief systems]], [[political system]]s, [[Cultural artifact|artifacts]] and [[technology|technologies]] of the [[Western world]]. The core of Western civilization, broadly defined, is formed by the combined foundations of [[Greco-Roman world|Greco-Roman civilization]] and [[Christianity]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hanson |first=Victor Davis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C |title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power |date=2007-12-18 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-42518-8 |quote="the term "Western" — refer to the culture of classical antiquity that arose in Greece and Rome; survived the collapse of the Roman Empire; spread to western and northern Europe; then during the great periods of exploration and colonization of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries expanded to the Americas, Australia and areas of Asia and Africa; and now exercises global political, economic, cultural, and military power far greater than the size of its territory or population might otherwise suggest." |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Spielvogel |first=Jackson J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ni4PSpOxb6MC |title=Western Civilization |date=2006 |publisher=Wadsworth |isbn=978-0-534-64602-8 |quote=people in these early civilizations viewed themselves as subjects of states or empires, not as members of Western civilization. With the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire, however, peoples in Europe began to identify themselves as part of a civilization different from others, such as that of Islam, leading to a concept of a Western civilization different from other civilizations. In the fifteenth century, Renaissance intellectuals began to identify this civilization not only with Christianity but also with the intellectual and political achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Important to the development of the idea of a distinct Western civilization were encounters with other peoples. Between 700 and 1500, encounters with the world of Islam helped define the West. But after 1500, as European ships began to move into other parts of the world, encounters with peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Americas not only had an impact on the civilizations found there but also affected how people in the West defined themselves. At the same time, as they set up colonies, Europeans began to transplant a sense of Western identity to other areas of the world, especially North America and parts of Latin America, that have come to be considered part of Western civilization |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sharon |first=Moshe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XMX4xSQtkEAC |title=Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Båabåi-Bahåa'åi Faiths |date=2004-01-01 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-13904-6 |quote=Side by side with Christianity, the classical Greco-Roman world forms the sound foundation of Western civilization. Greek philosophy is also the origin for the methods and contents of the philosophical thought and theological investigation in Islam and Judaism |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pagden |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m80kwkt8YW4C |title=Worlds at War: The 2,500 - Year Struggle Between East and West |date=2008-03-13 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-923743-2 |quote=Had the Persians overrun all of mainland Greece, had they then transformed the Greek city-states into satrapies of the Persian Empire, had Greek democracy been snuffed out, there would have been no Greek theater, no Greek science, no Plato, no Aristotle, no Sophocles, no Aeschylus. The incredible burst of creative energy that took place during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. and that laid the foundation for all of later Western civilization would never have happened. [...] in the years between 490 and 479 B.C.E., the entire future of the Western world hung precariously in the balance |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cartledge |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-I4gcBlTqcC |title=The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others |date=2002-10-10 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-157783-3 |quote=Greekness was identified with freedom-spiritual and social as well as political-and slavery was equated with being barbarian, [...] 'democracy' was a Greek invention (celebrating its 2,500th anniversary in 1993/4) [...] an ancient culture, that of the Greeks — is both a foundation stone of our own (Western) civilization and at the same time in key respects a deeply alien phenomenon. |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPcNAQAAMAAJ |title=The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World |date=September 2000 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-14-029323-4 |quote=The Greeks provided the chromosomes of Western civilization. One does not have to idealize the Greeks to sustain that point. Greek ways of exploring the cosmos, defining the problems of knowledge (and what is meant by knowledge itself), creating the language in which such problems are explored, representing the physical world and human society in the arts, defining the nature of value, describing the past, still underlie the Western cultural tradition |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Richard |first=Carl J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dlMr4UhqQlQC |title=Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World |date=2010-04-16 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-0-7425-6780-1 |quote=In 1,200 years the tiny village of Rome established a republic, conquered all of the Mediterranean basin and western Europe, lost its republic, and finally, surrendered its empire. In the process the Romans laid the foundation of Western civilization. [...] The pragmatic Romans brought Greek and Hebrew ideas down to earth, modified them, and transmitted them throughout western Europe. [...] Roman law remains the basis for the legal codes of most western European and Latin American countries — Even in English-speaking countries, where common law prevails, Roman law has exerted substantial influence |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |url=http://archive.org/details/foundersofwester0000gran |title=The Founders of the Western World : A History of Greece and Rome |date=1991 |publisher=New York : Scribner : Maxwell Macmillan International |via=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-684-19303-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Perry |first1=Marvin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6jytVCocwMC |title=Western Civilization: Since 1400 |last2=Chase |first2=Myrna |last3=Jacob |first3=James |last4=Jacob |first4=Margaret |last5=Laue |first5=Theodore H. Von |date=2012-01-01 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-111-83169-1 |language=en}}</ref> While Western culture is a broad concept, and does not relate to a region with fixed members or geographical confines, it generally relates to the cultures of countries with historical ties to a European country or a number of European countries, or to the variety of cultures within Europe itself. However, countries toward the east of Europe are often excluded from definitions of the Western world.
|1={{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPcNAQAAMAAJ |title=The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World |date=September 2000 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-14-029323-4 |quote=The Greeks provided the chromosomes of Western civilization. One does not have to idealize the Greeks to sustain that point. Greek ways of exploring the cosmos, defining the problems of knowledge (and what is meant by knowledge itself), creating the language in which such problems are explored, representing the physical world and human society in the arts, defining the nature of value, describing the past, still underlie the Western cultural tradition |language=en}}|2={{Cite book |last=Cartledge |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-I4gcBlTqcC |title=The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others |date=2002-10-10 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-157783-3 |quote=Greekness was identified with freedom-spiritual and social as well as political-and slavery was equated with being barbarian, [...] 'democracy' was a Greek invention (celebrating its 2,500th anniversary in 1993/4) [...] an ancient culture, that of the Greeks — is both a foundation stone of our own (Western) civilization and at the same time in key respects a deeply alien phenomenon. |language=en}} |3={{Cite book |last=Pagden |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m80kwkt8YW4C |title=Worlds at War: The 2,500 - Year Struggle Between East and West |date=2008-03-13 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-923743-2 |quote=Had the Persians overrun all of mainland Greece, had they then transformed the Greek city-states into satrapies of the Persian Empire, had Greek democracy been snuffed out, there would have been no Greek theater, no Greek science, no Plato, no Aristotle, no Sophocles, no Aeschylus. The incredible burst of creative energy that took place during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. and that laid the foundation for all of later Western civilization would never have happened. [...] in the years between 490 and 479 B.C.E., the entire future of the Western world hung precariously in the balance |language=en}}}}</ref><ref name="grecoroman2">{{multiref2
|1={{Cite book |last=Richard |first=Carl J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dlMr4UhqQlQC |title=Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World |date=2010-04-16 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-0-7425-6780-1 |quote=In 1,200 years the tiny village of Rome established a republic, conquered all of the Mediterranean basin and western Europe, lost its republic, and finally, surrendered its empire. In the process the Romans laid the foundation of Western civilization. [...] The pragmatic Romans brought Greek and Hebrew ideas down to earth, modified them, and transmitted them throughout western Europe. [...] Roman law remains the basis for the legal codes of most western European and Latin American countries — Even in English-speaking countries, where common law prevails, Roman law has exerted substantial influence |language=en}} |2={{Cite book |last=Sharon |first=Moshe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XMX4xSQtkEAC |title=Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Båabåi-Bahåa'åi Faiths |date=2004-01-01 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-13904-6 |quote=Side by side with Christianity, the classical Greco-Roman world forms the sound foundation of Western civilization. Greek philosophy is also the origin for the methods and contents of the philosophical thought and theological investigation in Islam and Judaism |language=en}}|3={{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |url=http://archive.org/details/foundersofwester0000gran |title=The Founders of the Western World : A History of Greece and Rome |date=1991 |publisher=New York : Scribner : Maxwell Macmillan International |via=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-684-19303-8}}|4={{Cite book |last1=Perry |first1=Marvin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6jytVCocwMC |title=Western Civilization: Since 1400 |last2=Chase |first2=Myrna |last3=Jacob |first3=James |last4=Jacob |first4=Margaret |last5=Laue |first5=Theodore H. Von |date=2012-01-01 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-111-83169-1 |language=en}}}}</ref> While Western culture is a broad concept, and does not relate to a region with fixed members or geographical confines, it generally relates to the cultures of countries with historical ties to a European country or a number of European countries, or to the variety of cultures within Europe itself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spielvogel |first=Jackson J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ni4PSpOxb6MC |title=Western Civilization |date=2006 |publisher=Wadsworth |isbn=978-0-534-64602-8 |quote=people in these early civilizations viewed themselves as subjects of states or empires, not as members of Western civilization. With the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire, however, peoples in Europe began to identify themselves as part of a civilization different from others, such as that of Islam, leading to a concept of a Western civilization different from other civilizations. In the fifteenth century, Renaissance intellectuals began to identify this civilization not only with Christianity but also with the intellectual and political achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Important to the development of the idea of a distinct Western civilization were encounters with other peoples. Between 700 and 1500, encounters with the world of Islam helped define the West. But after 1500, as European ships began to move into other parts of the world, encounters with peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Americas not only had an impact on the civilizations found there but also affected how people in the West defined themselves. At the same time, as they set up colonies, Europeans began to transplant a sense of Western identity to other areas of the world, especially North America and parts of Latin America, that have come to be considered part of Western civilization |language=en}}</ref>
 
Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary and [[Western law|legal]] themes and traditions. Christianity, primarily the [[Catholic Church]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Spielvogel |first=Jackson J. |title=Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume I: To 1715 |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-305-63347-6 |edition=Cengage Learning |page=156}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Neill |first=Thomas Patrick |title=Readings in the History of Western Civilization, Volume 2 |year=1957 |edition=Newman Press |page=224}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Collins |first1=Gerald |title=Catholicism: The Story of Catholic Christianity |last2=Farrugia |first2=Maria |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-925995-3 |page=v (preface) |author-link=Gerald O'Collins}}</ref> and later [[Protestantism]]<ref>Karl Heussi, ''Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte'', 11. Auflage (1956), Tübingen (Germany), pp. 317–319, 325–326</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Protestant-Heritage-1354359/Protestantisms-influence-in-the-modern-world The Protestant Heritage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223053548/https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Protestant-Heritage-1354359/Protestantisms-influence-in-the-modern-world|date=23 February 2018}}, Britannica</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McNeill |first=William H. |title=History of Western Civilization: A Handbook |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-226-56162-2 |edition=University of Chicago Press |page=204}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Faltin |first=Lucia |url=https://archive.org/details/religiousrootsco00falt |title=The Religious Roots of Contemporary European Identity |author2=Melanie J. Wright |publisher=A&C Black |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8264-9482-5 |edition=A&C Black |page=[https://archive.org/details/religiousrootsco00falt/page/n99 83] |url-access=limited}}</ref> has played a [[Role of Christianity in civilization|prominent role]] in the [[History of Western civilization|shaping of Western civilization]] since at least the 4th century,<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/507284/Roman-Catholicism Roman Catholicism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150506111019/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/507284/Roman-Catholicism|date=6 May 2015}}, "Roman Catholicism, Christian church that has been the decisive spiritual force in the history of Western civilization". [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref><ref name="Caltron J.H Hayas">Caltron J.H Hayas, ''Christianity and Western Civilization'' (1953), Stanford University Press, p. 2: That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization—the civilization of western Europe and of America—have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo–Christianity, Catholic and Protestant.</ref><ref name="Orlandis">Jose Orlandis, 1993, "A Short History of the Catholic Church", 2nd edn. (Michael Adams, Trans.), Dublin:Four Courts Press, {{ISBN|1851821252}}, preface, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=KYdbpwAACAAJ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102161117/https://books.google.com/books?id=KYdbpwAACAAJ|date=2 January 2023}}, accessed 8 December 2014. p. (preface)</ref><ref name="How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization">[[Thomas E. Woods]] and Antonio Canizares, 2012, "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization," Reprint edn., Washington, D.C.: Regnery History, {{ISBN|1596983280}}, see [https://web.archive.org/web/20150319054715/http://books.google.com/books?id=jYvmAgAAQBAJ accessed 8 December 2014. p. 1: "Western civilization owes far more to Catholic Church than most people—Catholic included—often realize. The Church in fact built Western civilization."]</ref><ref name="Perry2012">{{cite book |author=Marvin Perry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U2pnv0Aoh2EC&pg=PA33 |title=Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume I: To 1789 |date=1 January 2012 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-111-83720-4 |pages=33–}}</ref> as did [[Judaism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Noble |first=Thomas F. X. |title=Western civilization : beyond boundaries |date=1 January 2013 |isbn=978-1-133-60271-2 |edition=7th |location=Boston, MA |pages=107 |oclc=858610469}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Marvin Perry |title=Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society, Volume I: To 1789 |author2=Myrna Chase |author3=James Jacob |author4=Margaret Jacob |author5=Jonathan W Daly |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-305-44548-2 |pages=105}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hengel |first=Martin |title=Judaism and Hellenism : studies in their encounter in Palestine during the early Hellenistic period |date=2003 |publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-59244-186-0 |location=Eugene, OR |oclc=52605048}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Stanley E. |title=Early Christianity in its Hellenistic context. Volume 2, Christian origins and Hellenistic Judaism : social and literary contexts for the New Testament |date=2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004234765 |location=Leiden |oclc=851653645}}</ref> A cornerstone of Western thought, beginning in [[ancient Greece]] and continuing through the [[Middle Ages]] and [[Renaissance]], is the idea of [[rationalism]] in various spheres of life developed by [[Hellenistic philosophy]], [[scholasticism]] and [[Renaissance humanism|humanism]]. [[Empiricism]] later gave rise to the [[scientific method]], the [[scientific revolution]], and the [[Age of Enlightenment]].
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