Philosophy: The Self-Destructive West and the Stillness of the East

The definition of philosophy, required for the context of this post: the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. It can both be argued that there is no division between Eastern and Western philosophy and also that there exists definite divisiveness. Studying both, I’ll certainly concede that there are fundamental similarities as there would undoubtedly be, but each side has its distinctly unique way of perceiving the world through looking at the self. Note that this will be an extremely subjective presentation of my thoughts, developed through my experiences studying Western Philosophy at a Canadian University and studying Eastern Philosophy on my own accord through various online courses and as more of a side hobby.

Philosophy has taken a rather divisive path at some point in the last few millenia. Perhaps it started with Aristotle’s Scientific Method. As it branched West, a reshuffling of priorities had taken shape. Logic and rationality took center stage and debates centered around, among many things, being an honorable citizen, rhetoric, scientific methods, etc. What’s more crucial to note here is not the actual ideologies that had been formed but, rather, the way in which the West practiced philosophy. There seemed to be a need to present novel concepts, to induce paradigm-shifts and to reinvent the wheel through novel modes of interpretation. Had this been tied to the way in which the church functioned? My knowledge regarding religious history is not rich enough to delve deeper down that route.

It is traditionally agreed that Western philosophy tends to encompass a more fragmented realm, dissecting and analyzing a number of concepts within their own, separate context. Eastern Philosophy tends to be much more holistic, concepts being connected and entwined with one another to some basic extent. How did this start? Perhaps it had been Descartes’ famously quoted statement, “Cogito, ergo sum” [I think, therefore, I am], which has encouraged Western thinkers to equate their identity with rationality more so than viewing ones self as a whole organism. Subsequently, thought itself was absolutely central to Western philosophy, whereas the East was content with the concepts as they existed through time, contemplating them rather than wondering how one can arrive at said concept — this can be exemplified with the Chinese notion of the Tao, discussed below.