A comparative study on the eastern and western thought and

1

A comparative study on the Eastern and Western

thought and thought patterns

Abstract:

Cultures are both similar and different at the same time, and the differences

are where misunderstanding and even conflicts may arise. So it

’

s very important for us

to have some knowledge of them. Comparison is a very good way for us to increase

and

deepen

the

understanding

of

our

life

and

world.

Since

thought

and

thought

patterns is a very important part of cultures, it

’

s necessary for us to know something

about

it.

This

paper

will

tell

you

about

the

differences

of

eastern

and

western

thought patterns from four aspects:

1,human nature

relation of individual and group

3, the Chinese indirect VS. Americans direct

4,unity and opposite

Key words: thought and thought patterns; differences; eastern and western

Introduction

Thought is abstract, untouchable and invisible, and international through some

forms. And language is an important carrier of thought which is called thought pattern.

They

differ

because

of

the

cultural

backgrounds

It

is

also

shown

in

international

corporations as different people from different cultures have different views in time

and space. For example, English belongs to the Western language system, which has a

distinctive feature of analysis within the users; Chinese belongs to Eastern language

system,

which

has

the

greatest

characteristic

of

holism

and

strong

logicality.

This

paper

talks about the differences which are very common in our daily lives from four

aspects.

nature

The traditional western belief about human nature is that humans are basically

evil.

The

belief

may

have

some

relation

with

their

religious

belief.

Since

many

Western believe in Christian, they believe in the story of Adam and Eve that Adam

and Eve are our ancestors. They were thrown out of the heaven by god because then

2

couldn

?

t resist the temptation and ate the fruit from the Tree of

knowledge. So all

humans are born with original sin. Human do evil as part of their nature and can only

be saved from evil by god. The bible tells us that god sent his son Jesus to earth to die

for all of us on the cross so that he took all the sin from us. Thus then we can go to

heaven

after

we

die.

There

many

examples

illustrate

human

are

born

evil.

A

baby

doesn

?

t have moral values. When he wants something ,he just get or steal it. He can

only be told what is right and wrong by the other people. Western people believe in

god and the next life. So in order to go to heaven after they die, the have to try very

hard

to

perfect

themselves

and

do

good

things.

This

traditional

view

affect

their

thought pattern and the way they do things. The distrust of human nature can be seen

in American political institutions

with their checks and balances.

In

contract,

the

Asian

people

accepted

Confucianism

and

believe

that

human

beings are basically good. And we can see this from the Three Character Classic that

begins

with

?

Man,

by

nature,is

good;

people

?

s

inborn

characters

are

similar

,but

learning

makes

them

different

?

.

That

?

s

why

the

children

?

s

eyes

are

the

purest

and

children

have

lots

of

sympathy.

People

?

s

character

become

complicated

when

they

grow up and their character is greatly affected by his living environment. There are

many stories and teachings on this point, such as Menciu

?

s mother move three times

in order her son could be in a good neighborhood and the saying that

?

Your character

will be tinted

?

red

?

if

you are in the company of

?

redness

?

?

black

?

if you are in

close contact with ink

?

. And nowadays there is also a saying that your possession is

decided by your closest five friends

?

possession.

2, the relationship of individual and community

Western

people

are

individualists,

which

means

,they

focus

on

taking

care

of

themselves more than community. And it

?

s their personal choices if they want to be

altruistic or completely self absorbed. They believe that individuality is development.

The notion of

?

development

?

hers refers to the general ideas of mankind and the way

for individuals to reach the general ideas of mankind. And this attitude also has it

?

s its

advantages.

Since

people

focus

more

on

themselves,

they

?

ll

try

hard

to

perfect

themselves

be

very

confident

in

a

large

group.

They

are

more

willingly

to

present

3

themselves to others so that they have more chances to be recognized. In the modern

society the competition

is

so

fierce that everyone

needs to

be independent

to

live a

better life. We can

?

t always be interdependent and find community.

Chinese people are collectivists which means they are interdependent and counts more

on the community. They believe that collectivism is the only way to survive because

the hunter will more likely to attack the zebra which is alone than the pack of a fifty

zebras. And they think that governments believing in collectivism offer more to their

community than those who believe in individualism tend to create laws to protect the

fittest. They tend to sacrifice their soldiers for their own political stability, denying the

cries of their own people. A collective culture is where people in a community tend to

help each other and where families tend to be closer. And the children sometimes end

up taking the sane occupation as their parents.

After all, nobody can make any arguments on which one is better-----collectivist

or individualists. We cannot judge other people

?

s way of living. We discuss about it

depending on whether you

?

ve brought up in an independent or interdependent culture.

And each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.

3,straight forward and round about

Western people are straight forward. They usually ask for request first and then

give the reasons. When you ask them questions, they

?

ll first represent their view or

give the accurate answer. And the they

?

ll explain it. So they can make it clear what

they

want

to

tell

others.

Their

thought

pattern

has

its

own

disadvantages.

They

are

more efficient in doing things than those who cares a lot about polite and face. There

are

less

misunderstandings.

So

when

you

communicate

with

foreign

people,

you

should present your idea directly and clearly.

Chinese people tend to round about. They usually give a lot of reasons before

they ask for request. Sometimes they just don

?

t tell you his real purposes and let you

guess.

Chinese

are

good

at

playing

this

kind

of

game

but

it

will

cause

misunderstanding

when

you

communicate

with

foreigners.

To

communicate

with

Chinese, you have to try to know the implication. Sometimes they say yes when they

mean no

and no

when they

mean

yes.

Chinese

people like to

denigrate

and elevate