Open access
NOVELTIES, REPETITIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN CIVILISATION
Wiesław SZTUMSKI1
Expieriences of the Past and Challenges of the Futures
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Transformations No. 2 (109) 2021, Publication date: 20 June 2021
Keywords: Western civilization, unsustainable development; wobbly, news and transformations of Western civilization; causes of the fall of Western civilization
Abstract Western civilization (especially in the countries of Western Europe, the United States of America, Canada and Australia) undoubtedly surpassed in many respects earlier civilizations in human history. First of all, due to the number of significant scientific discoveries and technical inventions, the wealth of philosophical and ideological concepts, management methods, division of labor and economic models. It grew out of the Enlightenment and positivist ideas, which contributed to remarkable technological progress. It owes its birth and development to the capitalist system and the trend of liberalization. It transformed in newer forms proportionally to the development of capitalism. In about two centuries, it had already entered the saturation phase - the "golden age" of the twentieth. Currently, there are many indications that it is in a declining phase and is heading towards a collapse at an accelerated pace due to an increase of internal contradictions, mainly social ones, which probably got out of hand. However, these contradictions are not the first cause of the collapse of this civilization. The source of these contradictions and the most important cause of the decline of Western civilization is the growing imbalance in it, which manifests itself in the wobble of this civilization. As a result, its "immune system" constantly weakened and it becomes more and more sensitive to random and initially unnoticeable external factors (butterfly effect). In order to extend the duration of this civilization, although one not known whether it is worth pursuing it, it would be advisable to implement the recently fashionable idea of sustainable development with regard to all domains of this civilization
Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, Polska
ORCID: 0000-0002-6353-7206
E-mail: ws34@op.pl