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One of the Largest and Most Visited Sources
of Philosophical Texts on the Internet.
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Language is one of the most basic characteristics
of culture. The diversity of languages shows
that culture is basically manifold and depends
upon the locality.
Culture is semantically manifold, affecting
such various facets of daily life as table
manners within the family and modes of self-expression
on social occasions. Whether in matters of
personal taste or social celebrations, art
in general (painting, sculpture, music, drama,
literature, etc.) is the most important phenomenon
of culture. Both social custom and the legal
system are marked by traditional habits,
which are called moral culture. Even in the
intellectual fields of science cultural differences
are due to language which, in turn, influences
logic.
Someone may note the relation of the above
to religion as a cultural phenomenon, but
I will not treat it as culture because I
do not consider religion to be culture. It
is not that religion and culture are not
related, but culture is an entirely human
activity, whereas religion presupposes divine
activity.
In view of the above, cultures East and West
must differ basically in at least "four
dimensions," namely:
(a) daily life,
(b) art,
(c) moral values, and
(d) logic
Daily Life
In daily family life, let us consider the
dialogue between children and parents. Normally
in the Western world family members use a
horizontal mode in addressing each other,
meaning that they regard each other as equals.
No special polite form is grammatically established
for the parents, individualism obtains in
the form of equality and self-affirmation.
In East Asia, however, there is a special
polite form for children to address their
parents. This has a hierarchial attitude
as for people in a higher position or seniority.
Concerning human rights, the father or person
in a higher position within the group is
more empowered. All members are protected
in a collective sense, and one's identity
is in terms of the group.
In both East and West this influences the
way one presents oneself in social life.
At the opening of a meeting of an international
committee, I would introduce myself as follows:
I am Tomonobu Imamichi, Professor of Philosophy
at the International Center of Philosophy
in Tokyo, Japan.
Note, the order here is:
(1) first personal name
(2) family name
(3) profession
(4) name of institution
(5) town
(6) country
But the same introduction in an East Asian
language would be: "I, Japan, Tokyo,
International Center of Philosophy, Professor,
Imamichi Tomonobu, am." Here, the word
order is in complete contrast to the Western
self-presentation:
(1) country name
(2) town
(3) institution
(4) profession
(5) family name
(6) personal name
Moreover, usually such a formal self-presentation
is finished within 10 seconds and in one
breath, starting with a loud voice, which
gradually diminishes to almost a whisper.
In the Western manner this means that one
can hear the personal and family name very
clearly, while the country name is often
absorbed and scarcely understood. In the
Eastern manner, however, one can easily understand
from what country the person comes and to
which institution or company he/she belongs;
but the name is sometimes scarcely understood.
The above indicates that in the West one
regards the personal name of the individual
as more important than one's belonging to
a certain group, whereas in the East one
regards one's group higher than the individual
name. Here we find the opposite scheme of
individualism contra the group or in the
degenerated forms of egoism contra nosism
(derived from the Latin first person plural,
nos.)
Art
Generally speaking representative masterpieces
of Western paintings, from the works of Renaissance
masters till such modern painters as Cezanne
or Renoir, are mimetic representations of
the objective external world. This reflects
the Western traditional idea of art, proposed
by Greek artists and theorized by Plato and
Aristotle.
But since the invention of photography, the
precise description of the external world
is no longer the task of painting. Art must
seek a new task for humanity. As the technology
of the machine cannot depict the internal,
dynamic, psychological situation of a person,
what one has in mind or heart must be expressed
in visual art, linguistic form or musical
sonority. This modern idea of art is expressionism.
The word expression is found in classical
Latin where it means the `expression' of
the juice of fruit of the vine, namely, it
was a term of agriculture and zymurgy. So
far as I know, even Goethe did not know the
word ausdruck, and when Diderot used the
word it was for an objective description
of the internal landscape. The revolutionary
new idea of art was established between the
fin-de-siecle of the 19th century and the
expressionism at the beginning of the 20th
century. Hence, the nature of art in the
Western world has developed from the classical
mimesis, or objective representation, to
the modern expressionism as an explosion
of subjective passion.
Let us now look to the East. Confucius, the
first philosopher in China, living in the
6th century B. C., said, "In painting
the background must be left white."
This means that the painter should concentrate
his efforts only on the theme, and the external
details of the background should not be represented
in order to avoid the distraction of spiritual
attention from the theme.
The oldest Chinese picture, excavated in
Changsha in 1947, was painted in the 4th
century B. C. according to scientific proof
(cf. Haijek, Sekino). It was on silk, showing
a lady necromancer, rising dragon (symbol
of prayer) and phoenix (symbol of heavenly
messenger) and there was no background. This
traditional method of eliminating the peripheral
phenomena in order to accentuate the thematic
has been accepted in various ways throughout
history. In the 7th century, e. g., colors
are neglected, because they are superficial,
incidental and changeable.
Thus, black ink paintings became the main
trend in China and throughout East Asia.
1 Wang Wei, poet, painter and aesthetician
said, "It is not necessary that the
painted mountain be identified as a real
mountain, but it is absolutely necessary
to show the spirit of the mountain,"
apparently refusing mimetic representation.
In order to paint the spirit of the mountain,
the painter must unify himself with the vivid
spirit of nature, and then must express his
purified mind unified with the mystic spirit
of nature.
So, in the 8th century Shie Hwa proposed
six value levels of painting according to
what is depicted: first or highest is the
vivid dynamics of cosmic spirit; second,
the essence of a thing with the strength
of the brush; third, the phenomenal shape
of a thing; fourth, colors according to the
species; fifth, good composition; sixth or
last, mimetic representation. In medieval
times, the idea of pressing out the internal
consciousness was crystallized in one term
shai, which corresponds to expression. Many
outstanding painters could do masterpieces
of expression in ink. At the same time there
arose many unskillful painters who could
not achieve mimetic representation.
It is notable that in the 19th century Kazan
Watanabe criticized them as unskillful, insisting
that art is a matter not of expression, but
of the vivid representation of the real nature.
Thus, in the East classical idea of art was
expression, while the modern idea of art
is mimetic representation. One can say without
danger, that over the same period the East
and the West developed their ideas of art
in opposite directions. There are contemporaneous
developments but as opposite phenomena.
Moral Values
This is true also in moral philosophy. From
classical antiquity till today, this has
been symbolized by theater. On the stage
the actor must play a responsible relationship
with his/her partner according to the text.
Here there are two important theatrical concepts,
namely, person and responsibility. These
must be recognized as fundamental moral concepts
also in real life, namely, in the moral perspective
of human life.
Through the Socratic philosophical preparation
according to the motto: "know yourself"
and through the definitive influence of the
Christian tradition of persona according
to Boethius's definition of persona, the
concept of person has been set in Western
moral philosophy. However, although there
have been practical examples of responsible
deeds, the other concept, namely, responsibility
was not established till the end of the 18th
century in Western moral history. The English
word "responsibility" and the French
word responsabilité were first coined at
almost the same time in the 18th century,
and the German word "Verantwortlichkeit"
was coined at the end of the 19th century.
The content of responsibility, as defined
by John Stuard Mill, was accountability,
and the first edition of Eisler's "Worterbuch
der Fhilosophie" indicates "Verantwortlichkeit"
as "Zurechnung". Such chaos of
moral consciousness concerning responsibility
has been gradually corrected, so that the
book of Heinemann finally showed the moral
importance of the virtue of "Verantwortlichkeit,"
namely, responsibility.
Hence, we conclude that the key classical
notion of moral philosophy in the Western
world was person, while responsibility as
a moral idea is of new origin. Western ethics
only later integrated responsibility with
its original form of individuality.
Let us compare this to the oriental world
concerning the same issue. As everyone knows,
the five cardinal virtues of Confucian ethics
are as follows:
(1) Benevolence or charity.
(2) Responsibility (Yi). This was always
translated as justice. But according to the
structure of its Chinese character it must
be translated as responsibility, for justice
in Chinese is fair responsibility.
(3) Liturgy toward Heaven and sublimity of
behavior toward others.
(4) Intellect.
(5) Sincerity, as unity of verbal and physical
service to one another.
At a glance we can at once assert that of
the five cardinal virtues, four are virtues
in human relations, with only one exception,
namely, intellect. Thus, the human condition
is not one of isolated individuality, but
is organized according to a common sociability:
relationship is the absolute presupposition
of human existence. The highest virtue of
benevolence or charity is beyond normal humanity;
the idealistic longing of normal citizens
is for benevolence.
The second virtue, responsibility, is required
as one's first task. In Asia the classical
idea of morality was responsibility. But
there is no clear idea of person through
oriental history up to the present day, although
the Asiatic world learned the essentials
of this from the Christian religion. In the
17th century Wang Yangming and Li Shi came
close to the individual center, but not so
deeply as the notion of person. Many linguistic
forms of the first person singular testify
to a vague consciousness of the unchangeable,
hidden, fundamental base of individuality.
Finally, at the end of the 19th century,
the Asiatic world learned the importance
of individual existence when confronted by
excessive totalitarian tendencies in the
political field and reinterpretated Chuang
Chou as unobjectified "Ursubjekt".
Thus, the focus of classical morality in
the East was responsibility in social relationships,
whereas the modern idea of morality is centered
on the person. Hence we find a contemporaneous
development of opposite phenomena in the
moral sphere.
Logic
In logic most see no difference, not to mention
no contrasts or oppositions, but is this
true?
Naturally, in the mathematical field there
are no local differences in logical calculation.
But human thinking is not limited to mathematics:
there is also metaphysical contemplation
of the essence of truth.
In Western philosophy, undoubtedly the main
current of metaphysics is that formed by
Socrates-Plato-Aristotle. In the Socratic
dialogue "Politics" by Plato we
read that "the most important instruments
of a philosopher are noi logoi". A philosopher
must seek the truth through the most important
instruments, namely, noi logoi, which is
the plural of logos. Socrates uses the plural
because logos has many moments:
(1) word
(2) concept
(3) inference
(4) judgement
(5) thinking or calculation
(6) essence
A philosopher must think in linguistic form
through concepts and inference in order to
make essential judgements as to the truth.
Therefore, the truth is the result of an
objectively constructed digital operation.
There is only one truth; the ideally correct
answer is one, others are incorrect.
But in the course of the years there arose
the problem of existential decision, which
opened the way for veracity or existential
truth, which is different from correctness.
This is evolved by Heidegger, Jaspers, Marcel
and Levinas. Here, instead of calculation
the access to philosophical truth is by an
entirely new method.
The digital system has lost its absolute
dominance, at least in philosophical meditation.
Recently, not only in the realm of metaphysics,
but also in the logical dimension there arose
the so-called fuzzy logic proposed by Zedah,
which contained the logical validity of the
intermediate digital space between correctness
and incorrectness. Where in Western philosophy
the classical idea of logic has been that
of truth as one of absolute correctness,
the modern idea concerns human decision in
which the truth is abduced by interpretation
from the richness of the given reality.
How does the oriental world stand in this
regard? Confucius was a logician and refused
to think of heaven, soul, human existence
and death. But this does not mean that he
abandoned thinking on these important subjects.
He did not excuse himself from the effort
to treat these problems in a way essentially
different from the digital paradigm. Confucius
suggests spiritual access to these transcendent
objects through poetic interpretation, liturgical
practice and musical ecstasy, namely, through
pure aesthetic experience.
The task of Lao Tse and Tschuang Tschou was
to develop the logical validity and epistemological
method of pure aesthetic experiences. Instead
of conceptual definition, the Taoists invented
an imaginative logic with symbolic images.
There must be a delicate sense of anabatic
escalation of analogical difference. The
significance of intermediate space of value
between the conceptually acquired and spiritually
postulated in this way of thinking is vitally
important and was introduced into the Zen
Buddhistic way for enlightenment.
But over the course of the years, the Confucianic
rationalism of Shu Chi proposed a realistic
way of thinking for describing the natural
world and human behavior. Philosophers of
this main current after the 14th century
attempted a logical description of human
history and natural phenomena. In relation
to traditional Western rationalism and its
effect on 19th century science the objective,
descriptive scientific way of thinking was
separated from the characteristic soil of
Oriental inheritance. With this the classical
idea of truth in the Oriental world has been
existential "truth as sincerity is in
contrast to the modern idea of truth as objectively
calculated correct knowledge."
In the Japanese language tradition the word
group similar to Greek logos is the Koto,
meaning the state of affairs or situation.
Koto-wari means analysis of the situation;
koto-ba means originally a small part of
the situation. Makoto originally means perfect
situation, and is applied to the concept
of truth and veracity or sincerity.
If one sees a child being drowned in a river,
for the truth or alethea as discovery from
the view point of logos one must describe
the time and space, the supposed age of the
child, the speed of the river, etc. In the
midst of this objective description, the
child must be completely drowned. In contrast,
from the standpoint of makoto the movement
of logic is as follows: the given situation
or data is always incomplete: it is a wounded
situation. We must integrate the broken,
incomplete and wounded situation into the
complete, perfect situation as far as possible
through our human acts, either intellectual,
practical or creative. In this case, we must
make efforts to save the child in order to
bring this broken situation to the perfect
situation; this is the true act as truth.
Truth and veracity are always unified in
the word makoto.
In conclusion, both the East and the West,
whether in the creative activity of art,
in the moral act or in logical thinking,
namely, in cultural activity in general,
clearly manifest till this century a concurrent
process of opposite phenomena.
This means that we can now understand each other very easily. The world is now unifying itself from the local contraries to the one globalized culture in order to create a new philosophy of humanity. We are no longer semi-human but human, and are initiating a creative philosophy for all of humanity in its present technologically cohesive situation. |
