Dear Bruce,
I almost agree,but...
Bruce McFarling <ecbm@cc.newcastle.edu.au>:
>In part, it is the difference between the
> thesis "unusual and historically important things happened in Europe" and
> "Europe is unique because of the unusual and historically important things
> that happened there". The first is true -- but it is also true of other
> regions of the globe, which is why the second is false.
no objections here but what about such argument:
"Europe is unique because no other civilization managed to assimilate
achievements of almost all other living world civilizations, and no other
civilization except the Western one (based on Europe) managed to disseminate
so widely and deeply its (original or deeply assimilated) social, cultural,
and technological patterns in all over the world"
One can remind Sumerian states and agricultural technology,
Phoenecian alphabetic system, Persian coins and province control, Judaic
monotheism, Indian- Arabic numbers and maths, Chinese porcelain and gunpowder
but ...
can it be
compared with overwhelming wide Western realm of
patterns: Christianity originated in Roman Empire, nation-state
political and legal forms, stock exchanges, financial systems, all
modern sciences and almost all technologies, educational systems, democratic,
liberal and human rights principles, genres and forms in literature, art,
music, cinema, TV, computing, etc ?
best regards, Nikolai
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Nikolai S. Rozov # Address:Dept. of Philosophy
Prof.of Philosophy # Novosibirsk State University
rozov@cnit.nsu.ru # 630090, Novosibirsk
Fax: (3832) 355237 # Pirogova 2, RUSSIA
Moderator of the mailing list PHILOFHI
(PHILosophy OF HIstory and theoretical history)
http://darwin.clas.virginia.edu/~dew7e/anthronet/subscribe
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