欧洲文化复习终结版

1、欧洲文化复习终结版作者:日期:1 Four contending schools of ThoughtIn the 4th century B.C, there were four contending schools of philosophers arguing with each other. They were as follows:1. Cynics: the Cynics got their names because Diogenes, one of their leaders, decided to live like a dog and the word "Cyni

2、c" means "dog" in Greek. Diogenes lived by begging; he rejected all conventions and advocated self-sufficient and extreme simplicity in life. He proclaimed his brotherhood, not only with the whole human race, but also with animals. And he has no patient with the rich and powerful.The

3、first and most direct Cynic influence is upon the founding of Stoicism. Within political philosophy, the Cynics can be seen as originators of anarchism. The impact of Cynicism is also felt in Christian, Medieval, and Renaissance though. Finally, the mark of the Cynic is found throughout the texts of

4、 literature and philosophy.2. The Sceptics: the Sceptics followed Pyrrhon, who held that not all knowledge was attainable. He and his followers doubted the truth of what others accepted as true.The spirit of doubt influence many later philosophers and sictists, which encourage them to be creativity,

5、 and pushes the flourish of the diversity3. The Epicureans: the Epicureans were dispels of Epicurus. He was a materialist who believed pleasure to be the highest goal in life. But by pleasure, he meant, not sensual enjoyment, but freedom from pain and emotional upheaval. This he thought could be att

6、ained by the practice of virtue.His teaching was misunderstood by later people and the word” Epicurean“ has come to mean indulgence in luxurious living.4. The Stoics: the most important thing for the Stoics was not "pleasure", but "duty”. This developed into the theory that one should

7、 endure hardship and misfortune with courage. The representative was Zeno. He was a materialist, asserting the existence of the real world. He believed no such thing as chance, and that the course of nature is rigidly determined by natural law. In the life of an individual man, virtue is the sole go

8、od and it resides in the will.The Stoic philosophy had its biggest impact on law, ethics and political science throughout the world and history. It also contributed many significant theories on knowledge, logic and natural philosophy.2 ChristianityIt originated in the 1st century, and firmed its roo

9、ts in the second century, was widespread in the third century, and became the official religion of Roman Empire in the 392AD. In the fifth century, Christianity was quite popular and Christian church was widespread in the late middle ages. The middle age is called ''the Age of Faith”. Until

10、now, Christianity is still popular in the west world.It was founded by Jesus. He taught that man should believe in god and love each other as god's children. After he died, st peter and st Paul began to preach in the Mediterranean region. Saint Paul transformed a Jewish sect into a new religion

11、built on the personalism and universalism implicit into teachings of Jesus for humanity.Its teaching is that Christians should believe that every man is sin. They are all God's children and should share brotherly love. God have become human and the savior of humanity and Jesus is the Son of God.

12、 He was sent to the earth to suffer to save all the people. He will send information to people which are called the Gospel. People can communicate with god through Jesus or reading bible.Christianity has its own appeal.IThe Christian message of a divine savior, a concerned father; and brotherly love

13、 attracts many people.2 Christianity offers people what the Roman Empire could not: an intensely personal relationship with god, an intimate connection with a higher world, and membership in a community of the faithful,3 It stresses the intellect and self-reliance. The poor, the oppressed, and the s

14、laves were attracted to the personality, death, and resurrection of Jesus, his love for all, and his concern for the suffering humanity.It has 5 main impacts:1. Christianity established the basic value of the west world. 2.It lay the foundation of the western system of education and politic, especia

15、lly the democracy politics. 3it transmit the traditional culture and helped cultivated new civilization 4it helps each of the western regions communicate and interact with each other.5. Christianity has a great effect on Western culture in literature, music, architecture, painting and scripture, whi

16、ch contributes to the development of western cultural revival and lays the foundation of Renaissance in Europe.3. FeudalismFeudalism in Europe was mainly a system of land holding-a system of holding land in exchange for military service. The word "feudalism" was derived from the Latin &quo

17、t;feudum”, a grant of land. It flourished between the ninth and fifteenth centuries and Crusades helped to break down it. It was also a system of government- a form of local and decentralized government.Feudalism was a complicated system of government. The King granted the right to govern large sect

18、ions of land as fiefs to great lords, these lords known as vessels in turn promised to fight for the King. And they themselves further granted parts of their fiefs to lesser vassals.The centre of medieval life under feudalism was the manor. They were founded on the fiefs of lords. Everything needed

19、to live was supplied on the manors. It was self-sufficient. By the 12th century, they came to be called castles. At the centre of the manor stood the church, which was very popular and had a great and powerful influence on the feudal society.Almost all nobles were knights in the medieval days. But n

20、o one was born a knight-knighthood had to be earned and the training was long and hard. As a knight, he was pledged to protect the week, to fight for the church, to be loyal to his lord and to respect women of noble birth, this was known as code of chivalry.Charlegne was the most important figure in

21、 this period. He kept order throughout his realm and encouraged interest in the Christian religion and ancient learning. The result of his efforts was called ''Carolingian Renaissance".Alfred the Great, ruler of Wessex, contributed greatly to the medieval European culture. He introduced

22、 teachers and scholars, found new monasteries, promoted translations into the vernacular from Latin works and inspired the compilation of Anglo- Saxon Chronicles.Feudalism played a major role in the reorganization of medieval Europe. It affected political, social, religious, and economical aspects o

23、f the middle Ages. During this period, experimental science came into being and art and architecture flourished. Old English, instead of Latin language became popular in Europe. From European feudalism emerged different forms of constitutional government. But it brought about the class structures th

24、at persisted despite the rise of the burgesses (burghers, bourgeoisie) until well into the 20th century.4. RenaissanceIt refers to the period between 14th and 17th century. The renaissance means revival, revival of interest in an ancient Greek and Roman culture. In essence, it was a historical perio

25、d in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars attempted to get rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie.There are three characteristics of Renaissance. They are humanism, Secularity and Individualism.Humanism refe

26、rs to people's thoughts centers on human beings and their values, capacities, and worth instead of god. People were taught not only knowledge but also how to communicate one's knowledge and how to use it. In academic area, the most famous and influential humanist were Sir Thomas and William

27、Shakespeare.People pursued secularity at that time. They paid more attention on the secular happiness and became more rational and pragmatic rather than relied on the church for comfort.Individualism is another feature of renaissance. People began to pay attention on self-consciousness and self-inde

28、pendence and sought personal development and personal interests.The renaissance started in Florence and Venice in Italy. And spread to Germany, France, England and Spain in the late 15th century.It was a period during which art, architecture, and literature flourished. There are three great artists

29、in high renaissance they are Leonardo da Vinci, whose masterpiece is the Last Supper; Michelangelo Buonanrroti with his Statue of David, and Raphael Santi with his the Alba Madonna. Shakespeare was the most famous figure of English renaissance. He has many famous works such as 4 tragedies.The Renais

30、sance created a culture which freed man to discover and enjoy the world in a way not possible under the medieval church's control. The renaissance marks the birth of modernity. And it brings a new view of human nature. It also boosts the flourish of the literature, art architecture, which has le

31、ft many precious cultural heritages to us.5. ReformationIt was a 16th century religious movement as well as a social-political movement. It swept over the whole Europe and was aimed at opposing the absolute authority of the Roman Catholic Church and replacing it with the authority of the Bible.Marti

32、n Luther was the important leader of the reformation. The starting point was Luther's attack in 1517 on the church's practice of selling indulgences. The followers were called Protestants. He translated the Bible that he thought was the supreme authority and man was the only bound to the God

33、's words not the clergy's. He was also a fighter for democracy and nationalism, a humanist who helped build an educational system and his German translation of bible helped fixed the standard of the modern German.Another influential figure was the English king, Henry 8, who established the C

34、hurch of England with the king rather than the Pope as the head.The reformation has great influences. It challenged the medieval church and shattered its control over man. It contributed to the shaping of modernity by fighting against political authority, which promoted political liberty and the ide

35、a of equality. Thus it contributed to pave the way for capitalism.It has challenged the medieval culture education. They gave way to imagination, creation and free thinking. Scientific discoveries and inventions paved the way for scientific revolution and provided the chances for the communication b

36、etween different countries.The Protestantism came into being. Their thoughts of individualism: self assurance, individual ethics have great impact on the later modern politics and business.Calvinism stressed on hard work and thrift, which accelerated the production and trade.6. EnlightenmentIt was a

37、n intellectual movement started from France, which attracted widespread support among the ruling and intellectual classes of Europe and North America in the second half of the 18th century.Its characters are that the European writers used critical reasons to free minds from prejudice, authority and

38、oppression from church or state. It is called the age of reason.The enlightenment involved in many fields:1 In the political area, the thinkers regarded government as the political expression of law and the law originated from nature.2 As regard to religion, the enlightenment was secular. They advoc

39、ated the deism which illustrated everything worked according to natural laws.3 In art and literature, the neo-classicism is the outcome of it. It stressed on harmony, proportion, balance, and restraint.4 in economic thought, the rationalists favored laissez-faire policy. Through the enlightenment, t

40、here were many outstanding English literatures such as Jonathan swift with his Gulliver's Travels, Daniel Defoe with his Robinson Crusoe.Enlightenment has great effect on people's thinking of reason, and philosophers sought to analyze nature, government, religion, and economy through reasons

41、 alone, which promoted the later development of philosophy, and for the common people, reasonable and critical thinking led them to seek secular life.It also boosts the flourish of the literature, art, music, which have left many precious cultural heritages to us.The political philosophy was based o

42、n a new modern concept, whose purpose was to enhanced the human happiness and protect individual freedom.7 RomanticismRomanticism was a movement in literature, philosophy, music and art which developed in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It emphasized individual values and aspiratio

43、n above the society.The central message of the romantics was that the imagination of the individual should determine the form and content of an artistic creation. It emphasized human diversity and uniqueness. For them, feelings were the essence of being human and they saw spontaneous, unbounded feel

44、ings as the avenue to truth. They worshiped nature, thought nature was alive and suffered with god's presence; they viewed God as an inspiring spiritual force.In painting period, they stated that in the use of the color; there was lavishness, a brilliant and fluidity, along with which was the te

45、chnique to be free in contours and outlines.In music, they allowed freedom of form and stress strong feeling, imagination, the love of nature and used national folk-rhythms and turns of melody.Literature took the full force of Romanticism. It brought forth a full flowering of literary talents. For e

46、xample, William Wordsworth, one of the three "Lakers“ published a volume of poems named Lyrical Ballads and George Gordon Byron, Don Juan was his masterpiece.As a reaction to the industrial revolution, Romanticism looked to the Middle Ages and to direct contact with nature for aspiration. It ga

47、ve impetus to the national liberation movement in the 19th century. The romantics shed light on a side of human nature that the philosopher had often overlooked or undervalued and greatly enriched European cultural life. Because it valued a nation's past, it contributed to nationalism and conser

48、vatism. However; the excessive zeal of the romantic's attack on reason undermined the rational foundations of the West.8 DarwinismDarwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or evolution, including ideas of Charles Darwin in the 2nd half of the 19th

49、century.Charles Darwin made a great contribution. In the Origin of Species and the Decent of Man, he used empirical evidence to show that the wide variety of animal species was due to a process of development over many millennia, and he supplied a convincing theory that explained how evolution opera

50、tes.In addition, he adopted the Malthusian idea that the population reproduces faster than the food supply, causing a struggle for existence.The principle of natural selection, which contains four major arguments and was constructed from three apparently independent generalizations about the propert

51、ies of organisms, determined which members of the species have a better chance of survivalHe also marshaled the evidence that man is related to all animal life in his work the Decent of Man.Those who transferred Darwin's scientific theories to social and economic issues were called Social Darwin

52、ists. They used the terms "struggle for existence "and "survival of the fittest“ to buttress economic individualism and political conservation. This also happened in other fields such as biology. Thus the concept of Social Darwinism came into being.Darwinism ultimately helped to end t

53、he practice of relying on the Bible as an authority in questions of science, completing a trend initialed earlier by Galileo. It contributed to the waning of religious belief and to a growing secular designed by God and a soul that rises to heaven.9. RealismIn art and literature, realism is used to

54、identify a literary movement in Europe and the United States in the last half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. It originated in France and arose to protest against romanticism. The fundamental difference between them was the former depicted what people really are, while the later depicted what they should be like.Realism centered in the novel and lay emphasis on fidelity to actual experience. It had detailed descriptions of people and environment. Its language was simple, cl