西方为何得以通统治世界.docxVIP

　　中国近代为何落后于西方，众说纷纭。近代中国的落后也是造成亚洲东部诸多问题的一大起因。若放眼全球，近代所有其它地区均落后于西方，中国并非特例。西方为何能够统治世界，实为史上一大显著事件。 　　伊恩·莫里斯（Ian Morris）教授的著作《Why the West Rules — For Now》对此给出了独树一格的解释。该书行文生动，史料翔实，通过建立社会发展指数（Social Development）的简单数学模型，描述了自上次冰河时代末期以来约一万五千年的人类历史。该书亦通过对该指数的诠释，试图解析人类未来的发展，作者认为，未来三四十年间是一个关键阶段——成则为康庄大道，败则大灾变再次降临——一如历史的演变模式。 Why the West Rules for NowPrécis of Ian Morris’s book Archaeologist Ian Morris’s book ‘ HYPERLINK /Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0374290024 \o Why the West Rules for Now \t _blank Why the West Rules for Now’ takes a look at over 15 000 years of history to offer fresh insights into why development differed in the East and West and what the future will bring. It looks at the patterns of history to see what they reveal about the future. All his findings are based totally on archaeological digs that have been discovered and dated back to different time periods in history. Social development and the paradox of development In it, Morris builds a central thesis that development is the process whereby lazy, greedy, frightened people are constantly looking for easier, more profitable and safer ways to do things, which results in changes that create successful developments. But these successes in turn create new problems that need to be solved – this Morris refes to as the paradox of development. People confront and solve these new problems every day, which is why social development has kept moving upward over time. However, at certain times, the process of development creates tough ceilings that will yield only to truly transformative changes. During these times, if societies fail to solve the problems that confront them, a terrible package of ills that Morris calls the 5 horsemen of the apocalypse are let loose – famine, disease, uncontrolled migration, state failure and climate change – causing developmental stagnation and ultimate decline. Throughout history the East and West have gone through the same stages of social development in the last 15000 years, in t