Civilization Differences - East and West
There are significant differences between Eastern and Western cultures and philosophies. The social structures, attitudes of individuals and groups, philosophies, and many other characteristics are observably different between East and West.
EAST
|
WEST
|
|
Sense of self
|
Weak
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Strong
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Sense of interdependence (group)
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Strong
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Weak
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Attitude and focus
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Holistic
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Analytical and detailed
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Life control
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The world is complex and we have poor control over
events.
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The world operates by rules and can be analyzed and
controlled
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Universal God?
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No, there is a universal truth
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Yes
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Visual attention
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Background
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Foreground
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A major difference between the Eastern and Western minds is their definition of success towards which the left brain strives. The West is driven by advancing the civilization. This is accomplished largely through science and technology and increasing our abilities to utilize the world in order to gain greater comfort and satisfaction for individuals. The West is driven by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Eastern Mind, on the other hand, defines success in terms of attaining harmony and enlightenment. Harmony and enlightenment are attained by approaching or attaining the truth about life. The Western objective is based upon the activities of the left brain and individual comfort and satisfaction. The Eastern objective is based on attaining human orientation towards the right brain truths about “life”.
Another East-West difference is the orientation towards group vs self. Eastern philosophy emphasizes the responsibilities of the individual towards the group, whereas the Western mind is oriented towards the self or ego of the individual. The Eastern orientation towards the group works well towards the objective of attaining group harmony. The Western orientation leads towards greater agitation between individuals and stresses competition. The Western emphasis on the individual also provides greater opportunity for individual contributions to be implemented at the group level and supports the objective of advancement.
These differences between the Eastern and Western minds are fundamental. Clear distinctions are easily observed even today – 2,500 years after their formations. Of course, these are generalities, and the peoples and nations of the world are changing. In fact, the recent advances in international travel and communication have significantly resulted in inter-mixing of these cultural philosophies. Most of the change has involved infusion of Western Civilization into Eastern countries such as India and China. This is mostly because the West has been so successful at using the left brain to harness the resources of the planet to improve human comfort. Eastern countries are appreciating and choosing comfort over enlightenment.
some funny photos:
sources:
http://hassam.hubpages.com/hub/Culture-East-Vs-West-Explained-Pictorially
In modern world the differences between West and East are very visible and clear. I think that everyone of us thinks about living among the culture of West or culture of East. There are a lot of pluses and cons thhis living. Every of culture has incredible different priorities on their future lives and it is very significant that we can exchange some views, ideas. And we are able to decide how road we can choose.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion there are many differences between Western and Eastern culture. We can see them during holiday's trip, but not only. There are lots of foreingners in our country and we can observe their habitats and behaviour every day. I agree that Eastern culture is more relaxed. People from West are always in hurry, always want to be punctual. Everything should be arranged and planned, because they don't like wasting time. It is good when we talk about school or work, but in everyday life it doesn't work so brilliant. People from West are more stressed and dissatisfied with life.
ReplyDeleteThat is obvious that those cultures are different. The question is, which of them is the most important and has the biggest influence on the rest differences. In my opinion, perception of person is that whats I'am talking about. On East there is no personal cult. People are noticed as a group as contrasted with the West where individualism is one of the most important value. In consequence we are always hurry etc. because we have need to be better and better.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that Western culture is different from the Eastern. Those cultures have many differences. I agree that Western culture is more busy, they are always in hurry, focused of themselves. The people of Eastern culture are calmer.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more In the west, there is a tendency to perceive people as individuals, individualism and creativity become more and more important.
I mostly agree with all the differences between West and East you present. I'm only not sure about concept of love. Also I saw a few years ago some interesting program about this differences. There was some simple experiments. For example they were asking Asians and European people to take a photo of a couple. The result was surprising. Scientists noticed that all picture taken by the Westerners was focus mainly on a faces. While the Asians was trying to fit the persons to the background.
ReplyDeleteI agree that East and West cultures have visible differences- East concentrate more on a community, religion, tradition, and West culture is being built on an individualism, self- centredness and secular rules. It’s possible that the way, in which they are evolving, and personal beliefs create this differences.
ReplyDeleteI have never been in Asia, but methinks that in eastern culture very important issue is tradition and religion. Moreover I think people from Asia put the emphasis in order to live in harmony with nature. In my opinion people from western culture are totally atomized in this times while their counterparts from east still live in community.
ReplyDeleteI reckon that what you claim to be truth about East and West are actually stereotypes. Sure, East and West differ. However, there is no general truth. Everyone ought to avoid this way of thinking, because it can lead to misunderstanding other people.
ReplyDeleteI have the same opinion about East and West coulture as you. I've never been in Asia but I planed that I'll visit Asia. I think Easterns people are curious because they live without technology and it seems they don't need it. Maybe they don't know their life would be lighter with technology.
ReplyDeleteIn your opinion what are the differences between East end East culture ?Have you ever been in Asia?
ReplyDelete- I have never been in Asia, but I think your presentation reflects the truth and it's very interesting. East and West should learn from each other. However, thanks to globalisation differences between them are bluring. Culture shape our mind. And it seems that nowadays popculture is shaping everyone's mind.
I think that differences between Eastern and Western culture are enormous. The differences are visible in day-to-day life. I
ReplyDeleten Eastern society is very important to belong to group. When they live - they live for their family, when they work - they work for the sake of company's success. In Western countries people are important as an individuals. They work hard to achieve their personal goals and if there is no more opportunities to progress, they change their job.
People from East are hard working and very decent while people from West are laid back but greedy for money. West-East dichotomy is visible as well when it comes to economics and management. So popular in Asia conglomerate versus American corporation.
Of course this is generalization.
I've never been to Asia but I would love to go Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Despite globalisation differences between civilizations are still visible. Often we can't understand behaviour of people in China or Middle East. There are lot of differences in our minds, values, attitudes and behaviours. But it's vey important to preserve these things. They are making our world varied and so interesting.
ReplyDeleteToday differences are still easy visible - we have totally different culture than africans, they have different culture than asians etc. But there is something like international culture. You can live anywhere around the world and eat in McDonald or KFC, use iPhone, Mac, wear Wrangler's jeans, Nike sneakers etc. So - it's your choice.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to Asia but some of my relatives have. Judging from their stories, there are a lot of differences. I'm glad that those differences exist, if all the world was the same, it would be a very boring place to live!
ReplyDeleteThe big difference between Eastern and Western cultures can be seen from how people form the two cultures look at objects differently. I rember interesting experiment made by some psychologist. Experiment was performed on groups of American and Chinese citiznes. Each of them was shown 36 photos, and they were allowed to see each photo for 3 seconds. Each photo depicted a single subject against a realistic and complex background. For example, one photo showed a tiger (the single subject) in a forest (the complex background). experiment shows that it takes a shorter amount of time for the American test subjects to focus their attention on the foreground image of each photo, and they also spent a longer time looking at the foreground image than the Chinese test subjects did. On the other hand, the Chinese test subjects spent more time looking at the background images and less time on the foreground images.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! That is so combined with hisotry!!! It allow to understand why China got few tousend years of history!.
And this is only one example of many differences between us.
I think it's great that we have such different cultures because it helps us appreciate our own.
ReplyDeleteOne difference I find really interesting is how eastern cultures are very much more grouped than the west. Take for example the time when there was an earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Everyone was helping each other and calmly forming groups. There was no panic, no stealing.
Overall I think the more calm, gentle behavior of eastern culture people is a refreshing change. People treat each other with respect, are very polite, and keep to themselves. It really helps us see just how different we are.
Of course, they probably think our west culture is exotic!
And what about the global village? Can we use the split for East and west civilizations? Why we not apply the division between north and south?
ReplyDeleteIn these times, where we have the internet, email, airplanes, etc. It's hard to talk about the differences in culture, because these differences are rendered. Of course, we have different histories, traditions but that does not prejudge anything.
I have never been in Asia, in fact I have never been on the East, omitting east of the Poland.
ReplyDeleteIn elementary school I had a friend from Japan in class and she was very oriental for us - kids. Besides this my only contact with this culture was my mother, which was in Japan for two weeks.
My knowledge about eastern culture is based only on my japanese friend from childhood, my mother's stories and Tv/internet media.
I know that there is a lot of differences between east and west and it is not possible to list them all. We are not the same people in terms of culture.
I have been in Asia three or four times times and it was always very fascinating. There are huge differences in thinking, leaving, philosophy and priorities. The Asian people live closer with each other, in symbioses, they are more religious and some how they life in Present time. In my opinion Western people live in Future or in the Past. Ester people live in Nature, they are part of it, Western people use Nature, they dominate, the Nature belongs to them. In Asia human belongs to Nature. Eastern people are individuals, Western live in community. I think that philosophy of life is different between Eastern and Western civilizations.
ReplyDeleteIn your opinion what are the differences between East end East culture ?Have you ever been in Asia?
ReplyDeleteI have never been in Asia, but I think people are there more attached to traditions and beliefs. They have more respect for old common truths and things like that. I also think people from east are much more secretive and reticent.
I've never been in Asia, so it's hard for me to imagine the way people think of the East. I think that,in general, we can define how these differences focus on the individual and focus on all. In Western society, we focus on self-development and self-ego, the East is quite the opposite. The attention to the harmony of living with nature and other people is paramount.
ReplyDeleteBut I think that behavior is driven mainly by instincts, so it all comes down, and there are the same behavior :)
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