[Autumnleaf]

This was stolen shamelessly from the Jewish thread:

"Many of the principles that underlie the countries of Western Europe, and the countries that are ruled by their descendants, that are known as "the West", are the same values that underlied the Roman Empire."

I'm wondering if the East has a similar system in place culturally and if you think the East or the West is better, the same or just different than its counterpart. What do you think?

[Alberto]

The East has Buddhisms. The West as it has been rightly said in that thread is epistemologically Greek, ethically Jewish, and all the rest is Roman. Of course, the West has also science (a byproduct of the Enlightenments)

But I doubt we have come even close to understand how much Buddhism implies.
If West and East will touch, it will be along the Buddhist hinge.

ps between ethically Jewish and the Roman rest, you may place stoicism as a bridge (which in the Roman case may mean one name only...).

[Daoist]

^Buddhism came over from India. I'd sort of consider Indian culture "Western" in that there is a common ancestor (I think in Iran?) and there are even some common linguistic roots between Hindi and English (for example, tri- as in "tricycle;" a- as in "atheist.") After crossing the Himalayas, Buddhism became integrated into "Confucian" culture, and from there made its way over to Japan. The crossing happened long ago, so the two cultures are melded together pretty well, but I'd still consider the Himalayas to be the geographic separator between "East" and "West."

As for the OP: a complicated question that I wouldn't presume to be able to answer. Chinese is the 'lingua franca' in the region, similar to Latin in that respect. Scholars in surrounding countries (Japan, Korea, Vietnam) all used it in their writings. Culturally as well - Confucianism and all sorts of complimentary philosophies originated there. Mathematics developed early in China as well. It wasn't the same kind of math as we had in the west. It was based more in procedure than logic, so certain things like algebra took the place of formal proofs, but it was just as useful and insightful.

The Chinese-originated social system revolves around "face" - a word that's actually Chinese and didn't exist in English until a century ago. My idea is that this social system involves aesthetics more than logic. Instead of rule of law, they have hierarchies, which are maybe not as strict as often portrayed, but often embellished for the sake of appearances. These hierarchies actually help encourage personal responsibility, by giving people something to aspire to that's greater than themselves.

I believe the quoted passage was in reference to Weber, and Weber did actually write a book on China (although it's now dated - he had no idea the East would rise up on the world stage to anywhere near the stature of the West.) My view, to boil it down, is that while Western philosophy leads to more democratic governing structures, Eastern philosophy leads to more stable family units, and most importantly that both worldviews can be used in tandem.

I have more, but that will do for now.

[wolfyx]

The “East” system has proven its economic viability. It’s a system that emphasizes the value of education, social accountability and hard work. It’s only logical that they succeed.

The “West” had a head start in because of the “Industrial Revolution” and its consequential system “Capitalism”. The individualistic culture of the west has a higher capacity of innovation then the highly structured eastern society.

The West is better at creating progress, and the East in maintaining balance.

[psykhe]

	Originally Posted by Autumnleaf To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I'm wondering if the East has a similar system in place culturally and if you think the East or the West is better, the same or just different than its counterpart. What do you think?

I'm of the opinion that the West and the East have their own social structures, (some) way different from each other. That said, they should not be compared side by side.

Originally Posted by Alberto To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

The East has Buddhisms. The West as it has been rightly said in that thread is epistemologically Greek, ethically Jewish, and all the rest is Roman. Of course, the West has also science (a byproduct of the Enlightenments) But I doubt we have come even close to understand how much Buddhism implies. If West and East will touch, it will be along the Buddhist hinge. ps between ethically Jewish and the Roman rest, you may place stoicism as a bridge (which in the Roman case may mean one name only...).

I think I'd like to point out that there's just roughly
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Buddhists in Asia and would be an overstatement to say that Buddhism represents Asian culture (if I understand you correctly). Also, to say that West is ethically Jewish can be an oversimplication. Without even taking into consideration that the Jewish nation (and their culture) is demographically part of Asia.

Originally Posted by Daoist To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

The Chinese-originated social system revolves around "face" - a word that's actually Chinese and didn't exist in English until a century ago. My idea is that this social system involves aesthetics more than logic. Instead of rule of law, they have hierarchies, which are maybe not as strict as often portrayed, but often embellished for the sake of appearances. These hierarchies actually help encourage personal responsibility, by giving people something to aspire to that's greater than themselves. I believe the quoted passage was in reference to Weber, and Weber did actually write a book on China (although it's now dated - he had no idea the East would rise up on the world stage to anywhere near the stature of the West.) My view, to boil it down, is that while Western philosophy leads to more democratic governing structures, Eastern philosophy leads to more stable family units, and most importantly that both worldviews can be used in tandem.

The above quote esp the bolded part pretty nails it, I think.

Western culture = independent social structure
Eastern culture = interdependent social structure

[Daoist]

	Western culture = independent social structure Eastern culture = interdependent social structure

There's a bit more to it than this. The majority of cultures in the world are collectivist. A lot of this has to do with, if you live in a village with no privacy, then you're collectivist. What's more interesting is how Asian countries still maintain many of their old habits as they urbanize and develop.

[Alberto]

Originally Posted by psykhe To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I think I'd like to point out that there's just roughly To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Buddhists in Asia and would be an overstatement to say that Buddhism represents Asian culture (if I understand you correctly). Also, to say that West is ethically Jewish can be an oversimplication. Without even taking into consideration that the Jewish nation (and their culture) is demographically part of Asia.

Yes it is an oversimplification (the fact I mentioned stoicism also, as a proxy, subtly or somehow implies I was aware of that). The fact is, in a forum the only way to take into account every detail would mean writing a treatise every time :D

Buddhism remains one of the most original contributions of the Eastern thought - If we identify with "east" the whole of Asia, of course Buddhism is a significant minority and none the less a minority (particularly if one has a -legitimate- very extensive notion of Asia such as one that includes even Israel in it - you know, the old conundrum: is Russia Europe or is Russia Asia or is it Euroasia and if so what is such a thing? lol).

If by "east" instead we have in mind only the far east (which may be a legitimate interpretation of what one may mean by "east" in colloquial and not academic contexts) then Buddhism holds a much larger share.

But by and large I hadn't in mind a statistical framework but merely a conceptual one: Buddhism, among the many contributes that Asia may exhibit in the philosophical arena, is the contribution that seems more likely to produce a conjunction with the "West" (the underlying idea is that Buddhism is somehow compatible with science - the amount of books that, written in the "West", deal with science and Buddhist concepts are already countless)