"It has long been understood by philosophers that the entire bedrock of Western culture is based on two rival worldviews — the Greek and the Hebrew — and whichever side you embrace more strongly determines to a large extend how you see life.
From the Greek — specifically from the glory days of ancient Athens — we have inherited our ideas about secular humanism and the sanctify of the individual. The Greeks gave us all our notions about democracy and equality and personal liberty and cientific reason and intellectual freedom and open-mindedness and what we might call today 'multiculturalism'. The Greek take on life, therefore, is urban, sophisticated, and exploratory, always leaving plenty of room for doubt and debate.
On the other hand, there is the Hebrew way of seeing the world. (...) 'Hebrew', in the sense that philosophers use it here, is shorthand for an ancient worldview that is all about tribalism, faith, obedience, and respect. The Hebrew credo is clannish, patriarchal, authoritarian, moralistic, ritualistic, and instinctively suspicious of outsiders. Hebrew thinkers see the world as a clear play between good and evil, with God always firmly on 'our' side. Human actions are either right or wrong. There is no gray area. The colletive is more important than the individual, morality is more important than happiness, and vows are inviolable.
The problem is that modern Western culture has somehow inherited both these ancient worldviews — though we have never entirely reconciled them because they aren't reconcilable. (...) Our legal code is mostly Greek; our moral code is mostly Hebrew. We have no way of thinking about independence and intellect and the sanctity of the individual that is not Greek. We have no way of thinking about righteousness and God's will that is not Hebrew. Our sense of fairness is Greek; our sense of justice is Hebrew."
(Elizabeth Gilbert. in Committed, A Love Story)
From the Greek — specifically from the glory days of ancient Athens — we have inherited our ideas about secular humanism and the sanctify of the individual. The Greeks gave us all our notions about democracy and equality and personal liberty and cientific reason and intellectual freedom and open-mindedness and what we might call today 'multiculturalism'. The Greek take on life, therefore, is urban, sophisticated, and exploratory, always leaving plenty of room for doubt and debate.
On the other hand, there is the Hebrew way of seeing the world. (...) 'Hebrew', in the sense that philosophers use it here, is shorthand for an ancient worldview that is all about tribalism, faith, obedience, and respect. The Hebrew credo is clannish, patriarchal, authoritarian, moralistic, ritualistic, and instinctively suspicious of outsiders. Hebrew thinkers see the world as a clear play between good and evil, with God always firmly on 'our' side. Human actions are either right or wrong. There is no gray area. The colletive is more important than the individual, morality is more important than happiness, and vows are inviolable.
The problem is that modern Western culture has somehow inherited both these ancient worldviews — though we have never entirely reconciled them because they aren't reconcilable. (...) Our legal code is mostly Greek; our moral code is mostly Hebrew. We have no way of thinking about independence and intellect and the sanctity of the individual that is not Greek. We have no way of thinking about righteousness and God's will that is not Hebrew. Our sense of fairness is Greek; our sense of justice is Hebrew."
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