What are notable differences between Western philosophy and non-Western philosophies?

Have you taken a look at the Vedas, or the Baghavad Gita, or any of the many exegeses on Eastern Scripture? Or do you just want to be told by someone so you don’t really have to know the answer?

@pdworkin No, nor do I need to for this small project. I just need to read about non-Western philosophies and compare them to Western philosophies. I would like a bit of information about this to help me out, in combination with researching texts.

“Non-Western” covers a lot of territory. There are animist philosophies, pantheist philosophies, monistic philosophies, philosophies based on balance, on change, on suffering and redemption, on cycles, on reincarnation, on guided enlightenment, on individual enlightenment, on Nirvana, on heavenly reward, on universal harmony.

Pick a starting place.

@pdworkin Okay, how do East Asian philosophies (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and similar) compare to Western philosophy? Or, if that is too big of a group too, then: how does Buddhism compare to Western philosophy?

http://www.eaea.org/index.php?k=12117 ?

:edit: I’d say one of the biggest differences as I see it is individuality vs. the…collective? bound by obligations outside of oneself?-ness. Wait, a better way to put it: I vs Our

In a very small nutshell, Western philosophy asks questions about what can be known through the sensorium, that is to say, what is “real” and what is not “real”.

Buddhism is concerned with change and flow, and letting go, and introspection leading to “true knowledge” wherein the material world is no longer “necessary”.

Vedic religions see life as a continuing cycle of birth and rebirth into a world of illusion and suffering until one escapes the “wheel” and is liberated from being reborn.

Westerners tend to be reductionist, materialistic, empiricists. Easterners tend to be more interested in “letting go” of materiality, believing that suffering is caused by desire, and liberation is achieved through renunciation.

Many of the Asian religions are concerned with ancestors, Chinese religion tends to be based on harmony and balance in the universe, and the “flow“of forces or power sometimes referred to as Qi, pronounced “Chee”.

This summary is quite reductionist itself, has no nuance, elides a great deal of material, and is only useful as the barest of skeletons to hang a project on.

@pdworkin Okay, thank you.
@noelasun Thanks, I will take a look at that.

Seriously? You want us to write your essay for you? Cause that’s what any answer to this question would be. I’d suggest that you start with pdworkin’s outline and look at the bottom of a bunch of Wikipedia articles for sources. Then start writing the paper, even if you have no clear idea of what your argument is going to be. If you have more specific questions come back and ask us.

If you’re doing aesthetics, check out the book In Praise of Shadows. It’s Eastern aesthetics in a nutshell.

@wildpotato No, I just asked for some general information. I’ll be doing the project.

In this case, “some general information” = the essay you have to write. Perhaps you should have asked for sources and not bullet points.

Here’s a whole lecture on that, by Alan Watts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSZrPSqSuRs

In a nutshell, western philosophy is all about thinking, the cogito was a declaration of intent, allthough post Cartesian philosophers have sought to repudiate Cartesian metaphysics, they simply cannot take the I or the Thinking out of philosphy (generally speaking) Eastern philosophy views the cogito as a source of suffering, rather than truth and seeks to transcend the subjective thinker, often by proscribing a practice and lifestyle that is geared towards these ends.

As a source on the Buddhist point of view, this treatise, the oldest recorded Zen text, is about as close as one can come to putting it into plain language.

And this one, the Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya (“Heart”) Sutra is revered as one of the most succinct summations. Here’s the part that would be useful to you:

”...form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form; form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form; sensation, perception, mental reaction, consciousness are also like this. All things are essentially empty—not born, not destroyed not stained, not pure, without loss, without gain. Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception, mental reaction, consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, object of thought; no seeing and so on to no thinking; no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance, and so on to no old age and death, and also no ending of old age and death; no suffering, cause of suffering, cessation, path; no wisdom and no attainment.”

You’re going to read both of these and be confused. They’ll make no sense to you whatsoever. Which is perhaps the most salient distinction you can take away from this: Buddhism asserts that the nature of reality can’t be grasped by the thinking mind. For this reason, Buddhists really don’t see Buddhism as a philosophy at all, since it has nothing to do with thought.

If you ever read or hear an explanation of Buddhist philosophy that “makes sense”, you should be skeptical.

Edit: link fixed.

Collectivism vs. Individualism is a pretty big one.

If it wasn’t for the fact that his question is homework help, it’s quite interesting and merits discussion.

Has anyone ever read Siddhartha? I fell in love with it after reading and studying and discussing it with friends.

@wildpotato “In this case, “some general information” = the essay you have to write.”
Of course not.

“Perhaps you should have asked for sources and not bullet points.”
Maybe.

Thanks a lot everyone!

There is a bigger basis of binary dualism in western philosophies. For example – God/satan, good/bad, right/sin, etc. Pretty much it’s God tells you what’s good any contrast usually isn’t. I think western philosophies focus more on societal issue, ethics and morality and giving a sense of direction or innate purpose.

Whereas eastern philosophies usually have a holistic perspective – Everything (including us) is a part of nature, there isn’t usually a strict interpretation of good and bad or wrong versus right, there may be one god or several (they dont even have to be gods, but heavy impact role models). More or less focuses on nature and how to be in touch with it. Karma, reincarnation, everything is a matter of fate, etc. Heavier emphasis on meditation and mindfulness.