WESTERN AND EASTERN Flashcards
reported that people are shaped by their culture and their culture is also shaped by them.
Fiske, Kitayama , Markus and Nisbett (1998)
He defines Western concept of self as a “bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational and cognitive universe; a dynamic center of awareness, emotion, judgment, and action organized into a distinctive whole and set contrastively both against other such wholes and against a social and natural background..”
Geertz
- The western way of thinking is analytic-deductive with emphasis on the causal links (part-to-whole-relationships).
- The whole is understood when differentiated into parts.
- One must categorize and make distinctions to pursue cause
Western self as analytic
- The tendency toward unitary explanations of phenomena and a closed-system view of “self” as modeled after a unitary, omnipotent power (“Man was created by God, in His image.”)
- Genesis 1:27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Western self as monotheistic
- It is deeply aware of itself, its uniqueness, sense of direction, purpose and volition.
- It is located at the center within the individual through which the world is perceived.
- It is seen as an entity distinct from other selves and all other entities.
Western self as individualistic
The western way of thinking is focused on material “things” and favors a rational-empirical approach over magical and superstitious explanations of immaterial “things”.
Western self as materialistic and rationalistic
traces the earliest historical roots of the western concept of self to works on philosophy, almost half a million years ago.
Frank johnson (1985)
has provided answers to philosophical questions about the concepts of soul and mind
psychology
hinduism text
vedas
is the self that is all within us; the true nature of human
Brahman
(soul or spirit), the true knowledge of self is identical to brahman
atman
is the result of failure to realize the distinction between the true self and non true self
human suffering
(permanent and unchanging)
true self
(impermanent and changes continually).
non-true self
(most important doctrine). ” Individual actions will lead to either good or bad outcomes in one’s life. People get exactly what they deserve.
The law of karma
