What follows, are various views, stated by notable people, to expose the reader to various definitions of civilization, as each person, provides different weight on the various aspects and tenets of civilization. The Marquis Mirabeau, in 1757, seems to be the first to use the word civilization. At the time, the word civilization for him and philosophers of the Enlightenment had a narrower meaning than today. “It denoted humane laws, limitations on war, a high level of purpose and conduct, gentle ways of life; in brief the qualities considered the highest expressions of humanness in the eighteenth century.” Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), in his ‘Adventures of Ideas’ states, “Civilization consists of four elements, Patterns of Behavior,
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Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own. Albert Schweitzer outlined the idea that there are dual opinions within society: “one regarding civilization as purely material and another civilization as both ethical and material. He stated that the current world crisis, back in 1923, was due to a humanity having lost the ethical conception of civilization. In this same work, he defined civilization, saying that it "is the sum total of all progress made by man in every sphere of action and from every point of view in so far as the progress helps towards the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the progress of all …show more content…
We live in a materialistic world. Most of us think incessantly about making money, or about gaining power-expressed in material-terms for one group or one nation, or about redistributing, wealth between classes, countries, or continents. Nevertheless, civilization is not chiefly concerned with money, or power, or possessions. It is concerned with the human mind. The richest state in the world, or a world-society of unlimited wealth and comfort, even although every single one of its members had all the food and clothing and machines and material possessions he could possibly use, would still not be a civilization. It would be what Plato called ‘a swine’, eating, drinking, mating, and sleeping until they
Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own. Albert Schweitzer outlined the idea that there are dual opinions within society: “one regarding civilization as purely material and another civilization as both ethical and material. He stated that the current world crisis, back in 1923, was due to a humanity having lost the ethical conception of civilization. In this same work, he defined civilization, saying that it "is the sum total of all progress made by man in every sphere of action and from every point of view in so far as the progress helps towards the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the progress of all …show more content…
We live in a materialistic world. Most of us think incessantly about making money, or about gaining power-expressed in material-terms for one group or one nation, or about redistributing, wealth between classes, countries, or continents. Nevertheless, civilization is not chiefly concerned with money, or power, or possessions. It is concerned with the human mind. The richest state in the world, or a world-society of unlimited wealth and comfort, even although every single one of its members had all the food and clothing and machines and material possessions he could possibly use, would still not be a civilization. It would be what Plato called ‘a swine’, eating, drinking, mating, and sleeping until they