Greek contributions to the Western Civilization

The Greek civilization has given the western civilizations of today many contributions from the columns of the Parthenon to philosophy. The Greeks have contributed many of the things we use and think about to this day.

One of the things that the Greeks had thought of was democracy. From the Pericles’ Funeral Oration they believed the all people should have the right of advancement, political decisions, and the right to serve the public. The Greeks also created details of architecture that is used in many of our governmental buildings, an example would be from the columns that where used on the Parthenon. Also we get many principles of geometry from the Greeks. The Olympics started in Greece and are still used today as a way for countries to have friendly rivalries instead of fighting.

The western civilization also got many philosophies from the Greeks to better understand ourselves, and things around us. Socrates stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” which means that life is not worth living if you do not look back at it to understand and enjoy it. Their studies of Epicureanism that taught people to enjoy life and the gaining of knowledge was preferable over that of the body. The Greeks started questioning things around them, which started Skepticism, which is the understanding that not all things have answers and some things are not always right. The Greeks believed reason is what makes humans different from the animal kingdom.

We have got many ideas, principles, and techniques of doing things from the Greeks, which are still used today in everyday things or thought of to make us understand the world and ourselves.