{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_East_West_dichotomy_Chapter_16/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_East_West_dichotomy_Chapter_16","id":"wikisource_The_East_West_dichotomy_Chapter_16","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_East-West_dichotomy/Chapter_16","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"Since the more inductive East and the more deductive West are both part of a gigantic ecosystem called earth, it is import to understand how the two cultural hemispheres traditionally see their relationship with who truly matters to us all: nature.\n\nGiven that the analytically-based, deductive West has the advantage of \u201cprocessing information in a linear manner, that is from top to bottom, it collects a myriad of pieces, lines them up, and arranges them in a logical order before drawing the conclusions\u201d, it is clearly the dominant hemisphere when it comes to articulate, explain and write down human history (brain.web, 2007).\n\nThe integration-based, inductive East on the other hand, \u201cprocesses from bottom to top, holistically. It starts with the answer. It sees the big picture first, the great harmony, not the details\u201d.\n\nAs a consequence of such a comparison, the deductive Western hemisphere is \u201cnot only thinking in a linear manner, processes in sequences, but is also a list maker, enjoys making master plans, and learns in sequences\u201d. Western culture is \u201ca good speller, makes rules to follow, works in the linear and sequential processing of math and scientific methods\u201d.\n\nBy contrast, the inductive Eastern hemisphere processes information randomly. \u201cIt flips from one tack to another, it will get just as much done, but perhaps without having addressed priorities. It pays attention to coherence, greater meanings, illustrations and feelings\u201d. Its memory is connected to \u201cemotions and feelings, not dealing with things the way they are with reality but with ideal concepts\u201d.\n\nThe inductive East, which naturally got a glimpse on the \u2018whole picture\u2019, is well aware of the job the deductive Western hemisphere is doing in deconstructing and manipulating the world and all things:\nThe West is \u201clinear, sequential, concrete, logical, verbal, and reality-based.\n\nHowever, the deductive West, which naturally experiences a myriad of little details that make up the world, is not receptive of the job the Eastern hemisphere is doing in striving for a coherent \u2018wholeness\u2019 and \u2018interconnectiveness\u2019.\n\nThe East is \u201cholistic, random, symbolic, intuitive, nonverbal, and\nfantasy-oriented\u201d.\n\nA similar East-West comparison has been made by Li Dazhao [\u674e\u5927\u948a] (1888-1927), philosopher and co-founder of the Communist Party of China:\n\n\u4e1c\u6d0b\u6587\u660e\u4e3b\u9759\uff0c\u897f\u6d0b\u6587\u660e\u4e3b\u52a8\uff0c\u4e00\u4e2a\u52a8\uff0c\u4e00\u4e2a\u9759\uff0c\u8fd9\u662f\u4e00\u70b9\u3002\n\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u4e3a\u81ea\u7136\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u4eba\u4e3a\u7684\uff1b\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u5b89\u606f\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u6218\u4e89\u7684\uff1b\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u6d88\u6781\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u79ef\u6781\u7684\uff1b\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u4f9d\u8d56\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u72ec\u7acb\u7684\uff1b\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u82db\u6309\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u7a81\u8fdb\u7684\uff1b\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u56e0\u88ad\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u521b\u9020\u7684\uff1b\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u4fdd\u5b88\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u8fdb\u6b65\u7684\uff1b\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u76f4\u89c9\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u7406\u667a\u7684\uff1b\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u7a7a\u60f3\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u4f53\u9a8c\u7684\uff1b\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u827a\u672f\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u79d1\u5b66\u7684\uff1b\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u7cbe\u795e\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u7269\u8d28\u7684\uff1b\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u7075\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u8089\u7684\uff1b\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u5411\u5929\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u7acb\u5730\u7684\uff1b\n\u4e1c\u65b9\u662f\u81ea\u7136\u652f\u914d\u4eba\u95fb\u7684\uff0c\u897f\u65b9\u662f\u4eba\u95fb\u5f81\u670d\u81ea\u7136\u7684\u3002\nThe Eastern civilization is static,\nwhile the Western civilization takes initiative;\none is active, while the other is passive, so much for that.\nThe East harmonies with nature, the West conquers it;\nThe East is tranquil, the West is aggressive;\nThe East is introvert, the West is extrovert;\nThe East is dependent, the West is independent;\nThe East is reserved, the West is advancing;\nThe East is submissive, the West is creative;\nThe East is conservative, the West is progressive;\nThe East is intuition, the West is reason;\nThe East is spiritual, the West is empirical;\nThe East is humanistic, the West is scientific;\nThe East is mind, the West is matter;\nThe East is spirit, the West is substance;\nThe East is inductive, the West is deductive;\nThe East takes man and nature as inseparable parts;\nthe West takes man as the conqueror of nature.\n\n(Li Dazhao, 2006)\n\nLi Dazhao\u2019s observations are in line with how Western scientists generally perceive themselves and their abusive relation with nature:\nOnly let mankind regain their rights over nature, assigned to them by the gift of God, and obtain that power, whose exercise will be governed by right reason and true religion. (Francis Bacon, 1620)\n\nThe separation of knowledge from ethics, or let us say a \u2018value-free knowledge\u2019 is what most obviously distinguished the Greek/Hellenistic/European civilization from all the others. For the deductive West, everything in the universe can be considered a potentially usable object that must be studied and manipulated so as to serve \u2018man and his cause\u2019. This \u2018man and his cause\u2019, in the good old days of British Empire, meant, of course, the \u2018British aristocracy and her cause\u2019, but \u2013 during the European renaissance - had quickly turned into \u2018Western man and his Western cause\u2019.\n\n\u2018Western man and his Western cause\u2019 \u2013 this was about as far it could be stretched. Enough human beings and territory was left out that could make the scientific, deduction-based West fulfill it\u2019s mission, namely, to force into submission all things \u2013 the entire material world and everything non-Western.\n\nThe Western \u2018scientific way\u2019 implies that there must be a non-scientific way, or just a \u2018non-scientific other\u2019 \u2013 nature and the \u2018other people\u2019 who value the unity with nature. Nature and the traditional people who align with nature are thus, by definition, positioned at the wrong side of the \u2018man-conquers-nature\u2019- equation and consequentially must be totally subjugated, deconstructed (divided) and manipulated to the will of its scientific conqueror.\n\nTo sum this up, to any non-Western observer the West and its deeply intolerant \u2018scientific way\u2019 appears to be inherently v i o l e n t (Nandy, 1989).\n\nAsia, and by that I mean virtually all societies from the Russians over the Indians to the Muslims, Chinese, and Japanese, by definition had been on the receiving end of World History. They could help row, but not steer that boat. In an allegorical, Faustian sense, the political philosophers and scientist Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Adam Smith (1723-1790) were all among those great Western enlightenment philosophers trading the Western conscience for the power it meant over those who still had to compromise with their conscience.\n\nUntil the final (Faustian) \u2018reckoning\u2019, the Western powers - over all those centuries - could almost frivolously humiliate every other society on earth until all ethical ground were lost, and the very Eastern humanitarian notions of \u2018wholeness\u2019, \u2018harmoniousness\u2019 and \u2018oneness\u2019 became meaningless and undesirable to the average Western mind. What is most disturbing, however, is this: Even the slightest sign of a nearing of \u2018wholeness\u2019, \u2018harmoniousness\u2019 and \u2018oneness\u2019 is now reminding the West of its past \u2018failures\u2019 and \u2018shame\u2019 and thus, in the eyes of any analytical-deductive Westerner, must be avoided at all costs.\n\nThe final reckoning was considered only a matter of time, in Gandhi\u2019s words, until that \u2018other\u2019, be it nature or man, in a most subtle manner strikes back on its tormenter and destroys the illusion of Western-sciences-only validity:\n\nThis [Western] civilization is such that one only has to be patient, and it will be self-destroyed. (Mahatma Gandhi, 1938)\n\nGandhi was exaggerating; he did not believe that the West would simply destroy itself, or be destroyed by others, or that sciences would become invalid. But he believed in Eastern concepts of positive \u2018value-creation\u2019 and \u2018non-violence\u2019 that \u2013 in the long run \u2013 like all Eastern concepts of \u2018tolerance\u2019, \u2018wholeness\u2019, or \u2018oneness\u2019 would appeal to the Western imperialists\u2019 sense of shame. And so it did:\n\n\u4eba\u4e0d\u53ef\u4ee5\u7121\u6065\u3002\u7121\u6065\u4e4b\u6065\uff0c\u7121\u6065\u77e3\u3002\n\nA person cannot do without shame. If you are ashamed of your\n\nshamelessness, you will not need to be ashamed. (Mencius, 7A.6)\n\nIt is the old pattern, again: If the West searches for the power of nature (matter); it is the East that searches for the power over man (mind), and it is the healthy equilibrium that would benefit both of them and thus us all.\n\nSadly, the analytical West is still patronizing \u2018his\u2019 spiritual East. The facts have changed, global power has shifted, but not so the Western feelings of total superiority. That is why the otherwise easily predictable rise and proportional dominance of the integration-based Asia in the 21st century still looks somewhat like a miracle or bogus to most Europeans, even today.","title":"The East-West dichotomy/Chapter 16","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":1243}