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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
?
, but
?
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
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