西方文明诞生The-Birth-of-Western-Civilization.ppt

The Birth of Western Civilization 西方文明的诞生 Intensive agriculture became capable of supporting large groups of people in the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile, the Indus, and the Yellow River, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China. Yellow River “Mother River” Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast. Europe is washed upon to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the southeast by the Black Sea and the waterways connecting it to the Mediterranean. The Western intellectual tradition, like Western civilization itself, is a confluence of two traditions that arose in the ancient world: the Judeo-Christian and the Greco-Roman. Introduction reason, freedom, human dignity Western thinkers have long explored the crucial questions of life ,death, and the nature of the universe. Despite its great diversity and complexity, the Western intellectual tradition does reveal several integrating principles. 理性，自由，人的尊严 Surpassing mythical thinking, Western intellectuals forged the instruments of reason that made possible a rational and systematic investigation of physical nature and human culture, conceived the idea of political liberty, and recognized the intrinsic worth of the individual. 理性，自由，人的尊严 These ideas of reason, freedom, and human dignity—what constitute the Western idea—are not inherent components of human nature; nor are they self-evident principles. Rather, they are human creations, among humanity’s finest achievements. [牛顿苹果树后代的一颗苹果树，剑桥大学植物园 ] Newton was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation(万有引力) by watching the fall of an apple from a tree. It fell straight down — why was that, he asked? If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants . 如果我比别人看得更远，那是因为我站在巨人的肩上 这说明了一个物体的加速度与作用在物体上的合力成正比，与其质量成反比。在米－千克－秒的度量衡系统下