Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Interesting Observation

While reading a book, I think I've concluded something about philosophy. Western philosophy seems to be about the facilitation of practical and traditional learning: they want you to "learn more" about the way we learn. Eastern philosophy seems to do the exact opposite; learning in eastern philosophy seems to be centered around the notion that what we know is completely incorrect and that everything we know is a veil over our eyes, smoke and mirrors, whatever metaphor you want to use. Eastern philosophy seems to want you to unlearn what you know and open your mind to the "truth," the truth being the "unlearned or untapped" knowledge that can only be obtained by completely changing the way we think about concepts or ideas.

This seems to be the major divide between the two schools of thought. Not all philosophy originating from the west is western thinking, and same goes with the east. Western and Eastern philosophy isn't as simple as geographic location, but the complexities described above. Most people would find this important or pertinent to what they do, but to me this is an important revelation. I like and respect both schools of thought, but I think I would habe to agree with Eastern philosophy more, because I think there are a lot of ideals that people hold now-a-days that are negative and flat-out wrong. A lot of problems in today could be solved with some "innovative thinking," changing the way we look at things in our lives which might give us perspective on what is and should be important to us.

Interesting thought I figured I'd share.

1 comment:

  1. I was just hit with a thought a few minutes ago about identity and how connected we are with our names and use them to identify who we are. I was thinking about how unique my name is and how much I identify with it and know it is mine. It's hard for me to identify who I am without my name, what I do, and my actions in life...kind of in the Fight Club sense. I guess the point of this comment is just to spark a small bit of curiosity that may spread whisperingly through the minds of the numb. To you I say thank you for inadvertently inspiring me and I wish you all the best of luck on your trip...By the way, my name is Austin Ulen.

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