《The ancient Greeks.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《The ancient Greeks.docx（3页珍藏版）》请在三一办公上搜索。
1、The ancient Greeks The ancient Greeks had a great contribution to Western civilization. Much of modern politics, artistic thought, scientific thought, literature and philosophy derive from this ancient society. Now, let me explain it in three important areas. The first part is about the politics. Th
2、e ancient Greek democratic political system has a far-reaching influence in western politics. The word politics is derived from the Greek polis. The Greeks introduced our cherished concepts of citizens rights, democracy, and freedoms of speech and religion. Athens was the birthplace of democracy, a
3、system of government in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves. And today, Democracy is still practiced in modern political systems. Many ideas of government also originated in ancient Greece. For example, the theory of government that, favors the
4、many instead of the few. was created by Pericles. The second part is about the economy. As the ancient Greece was surrounded on three sides by water, including the Aegean Sea to the east, the Ionian Sea to the west and the Mediterranean to the south, the ancient were not only blessed with excellent
5、fishing opportunities, but also efficient travel routes. So already since the early history, the ancient Greeks began to sail to other areas around the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea and develop their economy. As a result, the overseas trade and commodity economy of the ancient Greece grew rapidly
6、. Trade encouraged cultural diffusion. It enabled the exchange of ideas with other culture and the spread of Hellenistic culture. The third part is the cultural. Greece in antiquity saw a remarkable intellectual cultural growth throughout the Hellenic and Hellenistic world and made many influential
7、contributions to western civilization in such areas as philosophy, science, literature, and art. Aristarchus put forward the heliocentric hypothesis; Archimedes calculated the value of ；Ptolemy formulated the principles of the level, the pulley. Especially, during the Classical period (500-338 BC),
8、ancient Greeks reached their highest prosperity and produced amazing cultural accomplishments. One of Greeces greatest contributions to western civilization is philosophy. Socrate put up with the dialectic method that lead people to see things for themselves by using their own reasons. And Socrates
9、student, Plato put forward the idealism that the ideas such as beauty, truth, and goodness are the only proper source of knowledge but they only exist in the mind of god. Platos philosophy was very influential in religious, especially Christian, teaching and writing. Philosophy impacted western civi
10、lization by setting values and morals for every day life. The ancient Greek expressed a brief in worth, freedom and dignity of the individual and encouraged the fullest development of human potential. The Greek were the first to define man as the individual with the capacity for reason. And all thes
11、e thing were the key element of the western European renaissance from 14th to 16th century. In the western world, it was the Greeks who first examined each problem in a spirit of critical inquiry and discovered the means to give rational order to nature and to human society. The ancient Greeks developed a great deal of what we take for granted. This is why Greece is considered as the Cradle of Western Civilization.
