Основа исторических достижений западноевропейской цивилизации: колониализм или наука?

Abstract

The article deals with the assertion, characteristic of modern culturological and political Russian discourse, according to which the main source of prosperity for Western European civilization (Western countries) is the exploitation of non-European countries conquered in the colonial era. Weaknesses of this statement are revealed. World scientific leadership, especially in the field of methodology and establishing a connection between theory and practice, was achieved by the West even before the start of colonial expansion. Non-European and peripheral European empires (Spanish, Portuguese, Ottoman, Chinese) did not independently switch to the scientific and technological development of the modern type. In a number of countries of Western Europe in the Middle Ages, a historically stable system for the preservation and dissemination of knowledge was formed: universities and previous structures – monastic schools, libraries, scriptoriums, which had no analogues in other regions of the world. The possibility of colonial expansion required certain preconditions; the position is substantiated, according to which such prerequisites were in the military-technological sphere and military thought, but not in the field of psychology. It is noted that the lessons of the history of the systemic success of the West are especially relevant in the current political and economic conditions and lie in the need to emphasize education, science, and a technological economy as factors in the development of society.