Unit 1 - Cultural Differences Lecture

Question 1

Thesis of book

Answer 1

Most basic aspects of cognition are not cross-culturally universal
Western thought is not the only one

Question 2

Ancient Greeks

Answer 2

Special occasions - plays and poetry readings

Chinese would never do that

Question 3

Agency

Answer 3

Individualistic perspective

Question 4

Greek debate

Answer 4

Ancient Athenians were great proponents

Debating = life

Question 5

Etymology of “private”

Answer 5

Root of the word deprived (of social interaction)

Question 6

Greek curiosity

Answer 6

Greeks speculated about the nature of the world

Constructed models of the world based on underlying principles

Question 7

Ancient Chinese

Answer 7

Special occasions = visiting friends/family

Harmony > Agency

Question 8

Harmony > agency

Answer 8

A person is the totality of social rules

Self-control is valued more than other-control

Question 9

Collective agency

Answer 9

Each person is a cog in the social machine
You must adjust yourself to fit the environment, not the other way around
Adjusting = revered trait

Question 10

Chinese debate

Answer 10

Public disagreement was discouraged (no debates)

Question 11

Chinese curiosity

Answer 11

Lacked interest in natural world

Question 12

Myth of the Cave

Answer 12

What our senses show us is not always real

Question 13

Plato’s reality

Answer 13

“Forms”

Question 14

Goal of philosophy/science from Plato’s perspective

Answer 14

Unearth the “forms”

Question 15

Aristotle

Answer 15

Tradition of seeing attributes as distinct from objects
eg. the sweater is blue but blueness is separate from the sweater
An unseen reality exists under the surface

Question 16

Are all properties of objects important?

Answer 16

No
eg. colour not important; size/weight is
Essential vs accidental properties

Question 17

Indo-European languages and nouns

Answer 17

Make nouns out of adjectives (white -> whiteness)

Question 18

How do Greeks categorize objects?

Answer 18

According to abstract attributes
eg. human being - featherless biped
Superficial things change but the essence of something does not

Question 19

Does the world change?

Answer 19

According to Greeks, it does not

According to Chinese, it is ever-changing and full of contradictions

Question 20

Greeks and logic

Answer 20

If logic contradicts the outside world, logic always wins

Question 21

Chinese philosophies

Answer 21

Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism

Question 22

Confucianism

Answer 22

Not really a religion, rather a philosophy
Focus on the here and now and the concrete; not much supernatural elements
Stresses economic well-being and education
Malleability of human nature (big emphasis)
Interpersonal harmony

Question 23

Buddhism

Answer 23

Shared emphasis on holism

Added epistemology

Question 24

Abstraction in Chinese philosophy

Answer 24

No search for underlying essences

Question 25

Nature in Chinese philosophy

Answer 25

A mass of substances rather than a collection of objects

Question 26

Social life in Chinese philosophy

Answer 26

Interdependent and complex; no man is an island

Question 27

Nature in Greek philosophy

Answer 27

Social construct?
Arose from objectivity/subjectivity debate
No other culture divided the world between in and out
eg. waterfalls made by man/nature are both real in Ch philosophy
eg. Plicher - everything in the world not touched by beavers

Question 28

Distinction between objectivity/subjectivity

Answer 28

Arose from the tradition of debate

Question 29

Nature and science

Answer 29

The concept of nature makes science possible

Whatever happens without human agency is possible to study scientifically

Question 30

Surgery in Chinese history

Answer 30

Health is a complex balance of forces

Question 31

Cause and effect in Chinese philosophy

Answer 31

Not a thing; events are the result of an interplay of many factors

Question 32

Complex relationships in Chinese philosophy

Answer 32

Most things are explained by complex relationships

Question 33

Categorization in Chinese philosophy

Answer 33

Because things are so complex, categorization is not an important aid to understanding

Question 34

Social origins of the mind

Answer 34

Ancient social differences that gave rise to differences in thought
eg. Ancient Greece vs. Ancient China

Question 35

Attributes that shaped Ancient Greek thinking

Answer 35

City-states due to topography/mountainous terrain
Democracy - political units were small
Traded internationally; exposed to different ideas

Question 36

Attributes that shaped Ancient China thinking

Answer 36

Little trade, ethnic homogeneity
Plains - agriculture and irrigation (central control is best)
Centralized political control

Question 37

Seven-level model of influence

Answer 37

1. Ecology
2. Economy
3. Social structure
4. Attention
5. Metaphysics
6. Epistemology
7. Cognitive processes

Question 38

Implication of the seven-level model of influence

Answer 38

Homeostasis

Question 39

Implications on the thought of the modern world - Easterners

Answer 39

Attend more to environments and relationships
Environment is seen as uncontrollable
More change
Explanations in terms of relationships
Middle way to resolve contradictions

Question 40

Implications on the thought of the modern world - Westerners

Answer 40

Attend more to objects
Environment is seen as controllable
Less change
Explanations in terms of objects
Logic used to understand the world
Likely to insist on right and wrong