EB and the West

[Bootsiuv]

What is "fully formed free government"? I live in America in the 21st century, and we don't even have a fully formed free government. I don't think such a thing has ever existed, to be honest. Many of the things you speak of as "fully formed" have been constantly evolving over the course of time. Even today, many of the things you speak of continue to evolve.

Do you have a "fully formed" concept of happiness? Or reason and logic? These things simply do not exist. Happiness is relative to many things, one being personal opinion. How it can be fully formed is beyond me. The same can be applied to almost all of the other things you speak of. If these ideas were fully formed, we would still be using them exactly as the ancients did.

Your argument also indirectly implies that easterners did not have "fully formed" concepts and thoughts. As far as I can tell, the Mesopotamian cultures (Sumeria, Babylon, etc.) and Egypt are considered more eastern than western in those times. Those civilizations were writing, conducting the business of rather centralized gov't (some times more than others), and building great monuments and art 2000 years before the Mycenaen Greeks. I can't help but think you're seriously underestimating the contributions these and other ancient eastern civilizations gave to the Greeks, who in turn gave them to the Romans.

Westernization in ancient times was mostly eastern ideas and logic which had been adapted to western life.