Factors behind the Rise of the West

Abstract

The rise of Western civilization is rarely depicted from the formation of its 
worldview. The West is composite of various elements such as Greek, Roman Empire, 
Germany, France, Celtic, English, Christianity, Judaism, and other European cultures, 
but the factor that brought about the rise of the West was not simply of those 
elements. This paper examines three factors that contribute mostly to the rise of the 
West, namely Greek, Christianity and Islamic worldview. The salient result is the 
Islamic worldview on the ground that the Muslims had creatively translated, modified, 
selected, and made commentary of different foreign works and came up with new 
knowledge in diversified fields but accord with Islamic worldview. The new 
knowledge that had been tinted with Islamic worldview penetrated the Western minds 
through various channels, the most important of which was translation. As a result, the 
Western scholars were able to develop various scientific concepts that subsequently 
able to establish different schools and universities, pivotal agents for the rise of 
Western civilization.