What is western culture?

Western culture is an important part of the development of human society. In a sense, western culture has provided a lot of beneficial nutrients for human beings to enter the stage of industrial society from agricultural society, and it has also constituted a major driving force for the progress of human civilization. But from a dialectical point of view, many deficiencies in western culture also constitute the resistance to the further development of human civilization. Therefore, we in China must look at western culture from both positive and negative aspects, and we can neither blindly worship nor ignore its existence. We should learn from the development achievements of human civilization, including western culture, abandon the dross of western culture to enrich our own civilization system and take our own road more steadily.

From the perspective of civilization development, western culture can also be called western civilization. Western culture originated from ancient Greek and Roman civilization, and gradually developed into European civilization after accepting Christian culture. European civilization has inherited and developed the outstanding achievements of ancient Greece and Rome in geometry, logic, politics and medicine. After the development of great navigation, it gradually expanded to the whole world, forming the foundation of modern western culture. Many scientific theoretical bases for the development of modern science and technology come from western culture. This continuous pioneering and enterprising advantage has provided a powerful impetus for the progress of human civilization after the industrial age.

However, western culture also has its dross. The shortcomings of western culture are poor inclusiveness, strong development and obvious exclusivity. After the combination of western culture and capital, the whole western civilization fell into the trap of egoism. This is particularly evident in the cultural systems of western powers such as Britain and the United States. The development of western culture, often accompanied by the expansion of imperialist countries, has brought many disasters to people in other parts of the world. This is why many people in the Middle East especially hate western culture.

After human civilization entered a new stage, the defects of western culture became more obvious. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the western culture was lax, selfish and isolated, which brought great difficulties to the epidemic prevention in western countries and provided a typical negative teaching material for people all over the world. Generally speaking, we can fully absorb and learn from the outstanding achievements of western culture, constantly enrich our own civilization system, take the lessons of the West as an example, and avoid taking the detours that western civilization has taken. Therefore, we should not blindly worship western culture, but should maintain our cultural self-confidence.