Having been brought up fairly and squarely in the Western tradition, I’ve never had a really good take on the essential differences between that and the Eastern traditions. So I was delighted that YouTube served up this 14 minute video for me, “Why do they see the world differently than us?” - The influence of Eastern and Western philosophies. Discourse is trying to help me see other relevant threads on the forum here, and there are several which are slightly related, but none that seems to jump right in and look at this head on.
I found this video very useful as an introduction. And when watching through, I find myself in an eclectic position — a bit of both. I value some of the Western traits like independence, yet I have been repeatedly critical of what I see as the over-individualisation of life, and being stuck in a deconstructivist postmodernism with nihilist tendencies. I value some aspects of the Eastern collectivist approach, but I am naturally critical of deference to authority figures, as I see this as leading to conformism, and regression to old cultural paradigms.
And I don’t think this is about left vs right hemispheres. I suspect that the qualities of L and R are seen differently in East and West, but I haven’t thought through just how. I would find that very interesting.
As the 2R approach is ostensibly trying to integrate Eastern approaches, I’d value some conversation around the basic “101” issues raised in this video, as I think it is very accessible and could bring in plenty of others who are not clear about the basics.
@Asimong you may like this book the Geography of Thoughts which walks through quite a bit of this (it’s in the Life Itself library btw):
Henrich also covers the differences to an extent especially in the original BBS paper on the WEIRD idea.
Personally i’m not sure the whole L/R distinction is so useful in this kind of area – and gets a bit overdone in general (cf my comments back on the McGilchrist / Vervaeke dialogues). I think we can focus on the perceptual and cognitive differences on their own.
Exactly, we want a transcend and include integration: combining self-expression and autonomy with ability to move and be with the collective. And … that’s hard to do. But it’s the ambition. I think some very interesting work on this is being done by Thomas Steininger and Elizabeth Debold with their work on Emergent Dialog and transindividuation. See
Thanks @rufuspollock that looks great for more detailed study. I was looking to engage at a more elementary level with people who might find the video much less daunting than wading into the book
