Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Western culture

This page is an archive of the discussion surrounding the proposed deletion of the page entitled Western culture.

This page is kept as an historic record.

The result of the debate was to keep the article.

I don't know whether the phrase'Western Culture' is precise enough to deserve an entry (although it is linked to a lot, mainly from alternative medicine pages), but I am pretty sure this isn't what it should look like. It never defines what it's setting out to do; the very first sentence is highly tendentious, and the article doesn't get any more encylopedic from there on. It's incredibly narrow in scope, simplistic and generally wrong-headed. I say delete it and, if necessary, start again with a blank slate - there's no point trying to edit this into a useful article. Harry R 15:52, 12 May 2004 (UTC)


 * Merge what can be salvaged into Western world. DopefishJustin 16:26, May 12, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Western Culture seems to be a useful title by itself, and the author of the page is known to keep improving his work. Let's not discourage. Suggest listing page on cleanup instead. Kim Bruning 18:12, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Checked Deletion_policy. The correct procedure here would be to list the page on Pages_needing_attention. Suggest we follow policy. Kim Bruning 18:17, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep and not merge. Western culure is a seperate entity.  People may add to it at anytime.  It will be a huge article with hopefully many spinoffs.  It is just that--a starter page.  I add to it all the time.WHEELER 18:38, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep! Sure it's a culture! IMO this listing is part of the chronic anglocentricity of the English Wikipedia, which is neither a disgrace nor a surprise but something to keep in mind. Western culture = civilisation = good is something we all know isn't an identity, but we tend to assume it anyway. Example (which is on my list to correct but feel free to do it): Home currently redirects to house. Yeah, sure. Andrewa 21:01, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
 * neutral. There's no such thing as western culture. They are all widely different. But they are related cultures since early. In Europe there are three main cultures, Anglo-saxon, Greco-Latin and Slavik Pedro 22:53, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment: I take your point that there are many different cultures within western civilisation, but I think that there's a recognisable culture by this name too. Culture is like (and often allied to) language, it occurs in continuums. Andrewa 09:45, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Legitimate topic. And what's wrong with the article? It seems to me at a very quick glance that it is a reasonable and well-written exposition of what might be called a traditional point of view. That is, the traditional point of view from within, uh, Western culture. So, sure, it might benefit from added discussions of the history and meaning of the term "Western culture," debate over whether there is such a thing, etc. But I don't remotely see this as a candidate for outright deletion.  Dpbsmith 23:07, 12 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment- "Western Civilization" is a more common term for what's described here. Perhaps change that redirect. Mackerm 15:04, May 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, not merge. Could use some help with the formatting and such.  But it is an article. --Starx 05:06, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Needs work. But keep, don't merge - David Gerard 11:31, May 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, but copy any relevant content to related topics. I seem to remember Western culture being mentioned by various Eastern demagogues (not necessarily meant pejoratively). --Zigger 19:59, 2004 May 13 (UTC)
 * As big and ambiguous a topic as this one is, I vote keep. This should eventually become a very big article. --Beelzebubs 22:47, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Are you kiding Western culture is way to a broud topic don't nuke it but break it up into smaller articls---Yammy Yamathorn 22:54, 13 May 2004 (UTC)


 * Come on kids! Join the fun working on it.Keep. The Land 23:53, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. The Western world is not the same as Western culture and the Western World page is already quite long. Agree article needs work, but if it develops, parts of Western World could be merged the other way. -- EuroTom 14:11, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization, replied "It would be a good idea." I agree with those who feel that this would be better titled "Western civilization"; I would argue strongly that there is no one overriding culture. However, I would not merge this with the Western world article. What it really needs is a good old-fashioned chainsaw edit, and the loving addition of some additional material. Denni 17:21, 2004 May 18 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue should be placed on other relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.