This book presents a new look at the West by tracing the still-recognisable footprints of the past and reflecting on the present challenges is facing. It recalls the genealogies of the plural processes, ideas, and events that structure the West's tradition and identity, and their presence nowadays.
The book has two different but complementary sides, as in the old vinyl records. On side one, it presents summaries and arguments about a vast array of issues raised by the history of Western civilisation, especially about cultural points, intellectual attainments, religious beliefs, and historical transformations. It proposes to embark on a journey that reaches back to the foundations of the Western Civilisation such as Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, and the early Christianity. It explores the painful split between Rome, Constantinople and Mecca. It connects the great values of the Middle Ages - from the chivalrous spirit to the scholastic rationality - to the present. It shows the faces of the Modernity and its most relevant achievements - the state in politics, the capitalism in economics, the science in knowledge - and how they are being revised nowadays by Postmodernity. It examines the twentieth- and twenty-first century self-inflicted criticism of the West, which has revised its previous tradition and heritage, and threatens the entire civilisation to disappear.
On side two, Genealogies of the West recalls the genealogies of the plural processes, ideas, and events that structure the West's tradition and identity, and their presence nowadays. It invites the reader to not only brush up on knowledge of the past, but also to reflect on the present and consider the political, social, economic, cultural, intellectual, moral, artistic and spiritual elements of past cultures that have left an indelible mark on contemporary values. Such an effort aids in our+J1 understanding of who we are, where we come from, how we are wired, what we owe to each period of the past and, based on this rich experience, how we can face the future with guarantees.
Engaging with this book helps readers gain perspective, gives clues for understanding the complexities of the past, challenges some pre-assumed historical inaccuracies, examines successes and mistakes, aids in the recognition of Western values and traditions, identifies its weight and presence in the present, and projects these thoughts towards the future.
