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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4688 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Eastern vs Western Civilization
I enjoyed her talk but could have done without her attempts at humor. So the essence of the talk is... sure the West (greeks) did some amazing things but they sourced their content from asians/muslims. That doesn't make the accomplishments of the West/Greeks any less impressive. I don't think she's really clarifying anything either. I mean, we all know the chinese invented pasta but the Italians threw in the oregano.




Lu  ·  4688 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I think more so the point is to recognize that many of the advancements of the West are in part due to the many innovations and discoveries of the East. I don't think her argument is meant to undermine Western advancement, but rather to trace back the origins of language, science and culture. I think most civilizations throughout history have been built upon their predecessors. What is most fascinating to me is how information or technology transcends as different cultures interpret and synthesize that information.
thenewgreen  ·  4688 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I understand that her talk was more about the evolution of ideas/etymology. I guess I too find the new interpretations of that information/technology to be the interesting part. There was less of a focus on the bending and forging of these ideas and where they were headed than there was where they had been.

But I don't think many people would claim that the wests advancements weren't at the footsteps of the east. But I'm just being cranky :/

Time to sleep.