Ancient Greece
Ancient Greeks made many influential contributions to western civilization such as in the
areas of philosophy, art and architecture, and math and science.
The ancient Greeks have made many influential contributions to western civilization.
These contributions, which are also the achievements of ancient Greece, include certain things in
the areas of philosophy, art and architecture, and math and science. The ancient Greeks were a
remarkable civilization in that they have made all these contributions and achievements while
simultaneously fighting two wars, the Peloponnesian wars and the Persian wars. One inner-lying
region of Greece, Sparta, and one adjacent region to Greece, Macedonia, were also of no help.
Whether it was fighting for territory or threatening the rest of Greece, these regions were
nevertheless a problem. Luckily for western civilization, Greece persevered through these
hardships and managed to achieve one thing after another, ultimately contributing a vast amount
to western civilization.
In the area of philosophy, Greece made many influential contributions to western
civilization. Greek philosophers were great thinkers who were determined to seek truth in a
certain subject or question no matter where it led them. Three famous philosophers include
Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. Socrates, who lived from around 470 to 399 B.C. believed that life
was not worth living unless it was examined and the truth about life was sought out. He also
believed that there had to be certain standards for justice and punishment. In order to solve
problems in life, Socrates invented a method for solving these problems called the Socratic
method. In the world today this method is commonly know as the Scientific method and is used
widely in the area of science.
Plato, a student of Socrates, believed that society is like one big family and that if one
person in a society needed help in some sort of way, the whole society should be there to help.
Pluto also had many democratic ideas which he expressed through the book, The Republic.
Lastly, Aristotle, who lived in Greece from around 384 to 322 B.C., was a philosopher who
believed strongly that human reason was very important. He said that a life guided by human
reason is superior to any other and that someone's ability to reason distinguishes them from
anyone else. Many other ideas came from philosophers and two of these includes the thought that
divine power ruled the universe and that human desire is dangerous and should be controlled.
These ideas along with the ideas of human reasoning, standards for justice, and democracy are
still used in western civilization, therefore showing Greece's influence and contribution.
Another area of Greek achievement is theater. Plays began to become important in
ancient Greece and two types of plays which were written and performed were comedies and
tragedies. A comedy in ancient Greece was usually a play that marked or made fun of a certain
topic, person, or group of people. One famous comedy writer was Aristophanes. He wrote the
plays The Birds and Lysistrata. A tragedy in ancient Greece usually dealt with a moral or social
issue, human suffering, and almost always ended in disaster. Three famous Greek tragedy writers
are Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. Aeschylus wrote the play The Oresteia, Euripides
wrote the play Medea, and Sophocles wrote the plays Oedipus the King and Antigone, one of the
most famous out of all of these plays. It was written in about 441 B.C. and was about a girl
named Antigone who defies the king's orders and buries her brother, who was killed while
leading a rebellion. In this play, many Greek values were expressed, which is also the purpose of
most western civilization plays today (to express certain values). Many famous play writers
today are also inspired by the works of play writers from ancient Greece.
The most important areas of Greek achievement were math and science. They achieved
all kinds of things in the areas of psychology, astronomy, geometry, biology, physics, and
medicine. In astronomy they formulated the ideas that the sun was 300 times larger than the
earth, the universe was composed of atoms, and they calculated the true size of the earth.
Someone greatly involved in astronomy was Aristotle. In geometry, ancient Greeks found the
value of pi, and a man named Euclid, who wrote the book Elements around 300 B.C., theorized
that if two straight lines cut one another, the vertical, or opposite, angles shall be equal. In
physics, the lever and pulley were invented along with a force pump which eventually evolved
into a steam engine. Important people in this area were Archimedes and Pythagoras who were
two of the many influential Greek citizens. Ancient Greece has definitely made many influential
contributions to western civilization.