Eastern and Western Philosophy

Left this commented on: http://alexmarshall.blogspot.com/



I think on a practical level those practicing an Eastern philosophy would say that our existence more so than our world is different than it appears. They probably would not deny that we would die, in the physical sense of the same form we are in, if a bus hit us. They would contend that we would continue to exist; they might even go so far as to say we could be reincarnated either as another person or living thing. I am not sure if they would deny contradictions as much as they would accept that things ‘can be and not be’ at the same time--which would violate Western/European logic.

Some cultures may even take an even more confusing approach and say at a particular level of existence things can be in a state of contradiction and non-contradiction at the same time. In the Buddhist religion/philosophy (I believe it is) this place is where things are at to begin and (for some time) end (it is the highest level of existence a person can achieve), but it is thought that it cannot be retained forever (as such the Buddha is thought to return one day).

I think an important point is that philosophy is extremely culturally influenced (and it might not be possible for us to break-away from our cultural biases).