02-05-2019, 07:50 AM
(02-02-2019, 06:15 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(02-01-2019, 06:36 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:(01-31-2019, 12:13 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Now science and rationalism is part of our world culture.
Quote:The Western model of competitive politics is something else that has been imported now worldwide.
It only makes sense for everybody to import what has been proved to work. More reasonable non-Westerners adopted Western concepts of science and competitive politics, but maybe there are some Eastern ideas that could benefit the West.
Christian sexual morality is one, it was invented by a non-Western culture (ancient Israel) and promoted so heavily that most Westerners don't consider it foreign anymore. Now we are assimilating Buddhist philosophy of mind and mindfulness techniques. The same happens to art forms, many fashionable dancing styles have an African origin.
Yes. I agree. Although Israel and Judaism is usually considered "western" as it is the source of western religion.
Ancient Israel was not Western. It was a sister nation of Phoenicia, influenced by Egypt and Assyria. It also predates the West.
Modern Israel looks like Latin America, with a Western elite (Ashkenazim vs Hispanics) and large non-Western population (Oriental Jews and Arabs vs Native Americans and Blacks).
Western thought seems to have followed the development from Aristotle through Thomas Aquinas into Whiggism and Liberalism:
https://www.crisismagazine.com/1990/thom...-mendicant.
Somebody once called Trump the face of Western civilization, but no, this title belongs to Aquinas.
I imagine that Ashkenazi theology must have been influenced by Thomism, but the Judaism of Oriental Jews should have more Islamic influences.