The ancient Greeks have made some of the crucial contributions in diverse walks of life like philosophy, art, and architecture, math and science. Had these contributions not been made by them, the world would have seemed to have been devoid of various significant things.
Ancient Greece Contributions
An interesting thing to note about this civilization is that all these contributions so made by the Greeks while fighting two wars namely the Peloponnesian wars as well as the Persian wars simultaneously.
Greek Contributions to Philosophy
Beginning with the field of philosophy, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were the main philosophers. These great philosophers were indomitable to discover the truth and question irrespective of whether it paved the way for the discovery of truth or not.
Socrates believed in order to make life with living, it should be examined and the truth about life should be sought.
He further developed a method of solving problems which is also called as the Socratic Method and is used even today and is also known as the Scientific Method.
Plato was of the view that the entire society is like one big family and if anyone had any problem then the whole society should help him out. Aristotle regarded the human mind as the most superior and held that this ability to reason distinguishes one person from another.
An important contribution was made by the ancient Greeks in the field of Theater as well and the two types of plays which were written were tragedies and comedies.
While a comedy made fun of a particular person, group of persons or any other such topic, a tragedy dealt with a moral or any relevant social issue or any such human suffering.
Famous comedy writer of that time was Aristophanes while famous tragedy writers included Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides. As a matter of fact, many famous play writers of today are inspired by the ancient Greek play writers.
Contribution of Greek civilization to the world
Democracy as a form of government is also a baby of the ancient Greek civilization. Right from coining the term democracy to governing, everything is a gift of the ancient Greek culture.
The first democratic government was formed in the city-state in Athens. All the citizens who were above the age of 20 years were eligible to be a part of the Assembly which was the lawmaking a body.
Greek Contributions to Democracy
Additionally, as many as 500 members were drawn for the Council of Five Hundred which carried on the daily business of the city-state of Athens. As a matter of fact, the present day democracy of the US is carried on in the same manner like how the Athens in ancient Greece functioned.
Another important contribution is our written language. It is based on the Greek form of writing called Linear B. It had less than 30 symbols and was easier to remember and write with.
Apart from this, valuable contributions were also made in the fields of math, science, astronomy etc. For instance in geometry, the ancient Greeks were the first to find the value of a pi while Euclid, in his book, Elements laid down that if two straight lines cut each other either vertically or in the opposite, the angles shall be equal.
Apart from this, the Pythagoras theorem was also laid down by Pythagoras. In astronomy also the ancient Greeks formulated the idea that the sun was almost 300 times larger than the earth.
Thus, valuable contributions were made by the ancient Greeks which are used or studied even today as well as used as a basis for the purpose of carrying out further researched or advanced studies.