バートランド・ラッセル『ヒューマン・ソサエティ-倫理学から政治学へ』第2部[「情熱の葛藤」- 第2章- Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, Part II, chapter 5
* 原著:Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954* 邦訳書:バートランド・ラッセル(著),勝部真長・長谷川鑛平(共訳)『ヒューマン・ソサエティ-倫理学から政治学へ』(玉川大学出版部,1981年7月刊。268+x pp.)
『ヒューマン・ソサエティ』第2部「情熱の葛藤」- 第5章「結束(団結)と競争」n.7 |
Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, part II: The Conflict of Passions, chapter 5: Cohesion and Rivalry, n7 | |||
西ヨーロッパ文化は、暗黒時代から中世初期にかけて領域的に制約され、知的にもイスラム文化より限定的であったが、ルネサンスの時期に突如として新たな活力と威信、そして広大な領土の拡張を獲得した。これらの成果は、冒険心、科学、そして他の文化よりも優れた政治制度といった特定の精神的特質に負っている。西半球全体がその支配下に入った。宣教師たちは極東においてその文化への敬意を生じさせた。インドでは政治的支配を確立した。キリスト教国を席巻したトルコ人(オスマン帝国)は、最初は封じ込められ、やがて押し戻されていった。 |
In the cultural sphere also there appeared to be a movement towards unification. A common culture has always been almost as great a cause of social cohesion as a common government. When men first lived in cities, each city had its own culture. Upper and Lower Egypt had different gods, and so had Babylon and Ur. But when cities coalesced into empires, their religions coalesced into pantheons, so that the area covered by a common culture grew with the growth of States. It grew, in fact, faster than States did. The Greeks had a common culture in spite of having no political unity. Buddhism produced a cultural unity throughout China, Japan, Tibet, Burma and Ceylon. The Hellenistic culture, which was, roughly speaking, a combination of Greek and Babylonian elements, spread over the regions conquered by Alexander, in spite of the fact that these regions split into several independent states. What was essentially the Hellenistic culture continued in that of the Roman Empire until the time of Constantine. The survival of Christianity in the West after the fall of Rome is one of the most remarkable examples of a common culture surviving political disruption. Meanwhile most of the Eastern territory that had been Christian was lost to Islam. Throughout the Middle Ages there were two Mediterranean cultures, Christian and Mohammedan, not only one, as in Roman times. Indeed one might almost say that there were three, in view of the gradually increasing separation between the Eastern and Western Churches. West European culture, which had throughout the Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages been territorially circumscribed and intellectually more limited than that of Islam, suddenly at the time of the Renaissance acquired a new vigour, a new prestige, and an immense accession of territory. It owed these things to certain mental qualities, adventurousness, science, and better political systems than those of other cultures. The whole of the Western hemisphere fell under its sway. Missionaries caused it to be respected in the Far East. In India it acquired political dominion. The Turks, who had overrun various Christian countries, were first contained and then driven back. |