Hey Western Civilisation: What Makes You so Special?

An overwhelming number of the explorers in history have been European. The Concise Encyclopedia of Explorers lists a total of 274 explorers, of which only 15 are non-European, with none listed after the mid-fifteenth century.8 In the urge to explore new regions of the earth and map the nameless, we can detect, in a crystallized way, the “prime-symbol” of Western restlessness. We can also detect the Western mind’s desire – if I may borrow the language of Hegel – to expand its cognitive horizon, to “subdue the outer world to its ends with an energy which has ensured for it the mastery of the world.”9 _Ricardo Duchesne

Age of Exploration

Westerners and Europeans have been at the forefront of most of the important human discoveries and accomplishments in science, philosophy, technology, and the arts since around 800 BC.

It is asserted by historian Ricardo Duchesne that westerners have also been at the forefront of most important human global exploration and discovery (h/t Dennis Mangan).

IN HIS 2003 book, Human Accomplishment: Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 BC to 1950, Charles Murray argued that the great artistic and scientific accomplishments were overwhelmingly European. ”What the human species is today,” he wrote, “it owes in astonishing degree to what was accomplished in just half a dozen centuries by the peoples of one small portion of the northwestern Eurasian land mass.”

...The point I want to make, however, is that Murray pays no attention to accomplishments in other human endeavors such as leadership, exploration, and heroic deeds. The achievements he measures come only in the form of “great books” and “great ideas.” In this respect, Murray’s book is similar to certain older-style Western Civ textbooks where the progression of modern liberal ideals is the central theme. David Gress dubbed this type of historiography the “Grand Narrative.” By teaching Western history in terms of the realization of liberal democratic values, these texts “placed a burden of justification on the West … to explain how the reality differed from the ideal.’3 Gress called upon historians to do away with this idealized image of Western uniqueness and to emphasize the realities of Western geopolitical struggles and mercantile interests. Norman Davies, too, has criticized the way early Western civilization courses tended to “filter out anything that might appear mundane or repulsive.”4

MY VIEW IS that Europeans were not only exceptional in their literary endeavors, but also in their agonistic and expansionist behaviors. Their great books, including their liberal values, were themselves inseparably connected to their aristocratic ethos of competitive individualism. There is no need to concede to multicultural critics, as Davies does, “the sorry catalogue of wars, conflict, and persecutions that have dogged every stage of the [Western] tale.”5 The expansionist dispositions of Europeans as well as their literary and other achievements were similarly driven by an aggressive and individually felt desire for superlative and undemocratic recognition. _Richard Duchesne

It is neither fashionable nor politically correct to acknowledge the leadership of Euro - westerners in any important and beneficial activity. This is particularly true if one is claiming that there is something innate within Euro-westerners which allowed them to provide leadership in multiple areas of human accomplishment which have improved the overall human condition for large numbers of the world's inhabitants.

More politically correct scholars such as Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) have attempted to provide alternative explanations to the idea of western exceptionalism. But few such arguments are able to withstand any degree of scrutiny or critical examination. Which leaves us with the question: What is it about western civilisation which caused it to produce so many exceptional achievers across so many important human fields of study and achievement?

Historian Ricardo Duchesne is also the author of a well researched book on the same topic: The Uniqueness of Western Civilization.

Below is an audio interview with Duchesne, where he discusses his arguments regarding the uniqueness of western civilisation.

Interview w/ Ricardo Duchesne re his book: The Uniqueness of Western Civilization

And so, again, what makes Euro-westerners so special?

It has been claimed that ADHD is far more common among Europeans than in non-Europeans. It is likely that a number of other genetic clusters which influence behaviour are likely to have been divergent in European populations as opposed to non-European populations. As the tools of genetic study improve, we should better understand how different breeding populations diverged in unique ways.

As Duchesne points out, the particular aggressiveness of westerners creates a wide range of problems at the same time that it opens and exploits beneficial opportunities.

Other populations tend to be more aggressive than Europeans in terms of impulsive violent crime -- such as many African populations and a number of South American indigenous populations. But Europeans are more violent in this way than are East Asians. There is a gradient of sorts, in terms of homicide rates: Africans > Europeans > East Asians.

Curiously, a similar gradient of average male testosterone levels appears to exist, with higher levels in Africans, medium levels in Europeans, and lower levels in East Asian males.

Even more interestingly, an IQ gradient exists in the opposite direction, with East Asian average IQs > European average IQs > African average IQs. Taken together, this might suggest that exploration requires at least moderate IQ and moderate testosterone levels -- in combination with other gene clusters which may add particular strengths to an explorer's innate arsenal of grit, gumption, "g", and go-getiveness.

We should note, however, that "he who laughs last, laughs best." If Europeans (and East Asians) allow their numbers to decline below certain levels of influence, they risk being ultimately overwhelmed by more enthusiastic procreators who may unfortunately lack some of the more remarkable qualities of the higher achieving populations, on average.

More Reading: Invention of the Modern World (Alan Macfarlane's Focus on England's role) h/t HBD Chick