Eastern Philosophy vs Western Philosophy

Explores key differences between Eastern and Western philosophy focusing on reality, fate, spirituality, materialism, and cultural influences.

Key Takeaways

Eastern philosophy values spiritualism, community, and acceptance of fate.
Western philosophy prioritizes materialism, individualism, and changing the external world.
Geography and economic roles (merchants vs. farmers) heavily influenced philosophical development.
Eastern thought embraces cyclical time and mental well-being; Western thought emphasizes linear progress and rational science.
Despite globalization, fundamental philosophical differences between East and West remain evident.

What the video covers

The video contrasts Eastern and Western philosophical views using the 1930s conversation between Tagore and Einstein on reality and perception.
Western philosophy emphasizes objective reality, change, individualism, materialism, and rational science.
Eastern philosophy focuses on subjective reality, acceptance of fate, spirituality, community, and mental well-being.
Eastern heroes seek inner transformation while Western heroes aim to change the external world.
Geography and climate influenced philosophical outlooks: Greeks relied on trade and mobility, fostering openness and pragmatism.
Eastern civilizations, centered on fertile river valleys, developed philosophies emphasizing stability, acceptance, and cyclical time.
Merchants in the West promoted adaptability and innovation; farmers in the East encouraged patience and acceptance.
Cultural examples include Jesus and Harry Potter as Western heroes versus Buddha and Laozi as Eastern figures.
Philosophical distinctions persist despite globalization and the spread of capitalism.
The video also discusses how climate, terrain, and economic roles shaped divergent worldviews in East and West.

Chapters

What was the main philosophical difference between Tagore and Einstein discussed in the video?

Einstein believed in an objective reality existing independently of human perception, while Tagore emphasized the subjective nature of reality influenced by human observation, aligning with ideas from quantum physics.

How do Eastern and Western heroes differ according to the video?

Western heroes aim to change the external world and confront injustice, while Eastern heroes focus on changing themselves, often accepting fate or retreating for contemplation.

What role did geography play in shaping Eastern and Western philosophies?

Geography influenced economic activities—Greeks relied on trade due to poor soil, fostering openness and pragmatism, while Eastern civilizations depended on fertile river valleys, promoting stability, acceptance, and spiritual focus.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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In the 1930s, there was an interesting conversation between the greatest Indian poet and philosopher Tagore and the greatest German scientist Einstein. The conversation centered on the idea of reality, truth, and beauty. Einstein believed in an objective reality outside

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the human, while Tagore insisted on the subjective interpretation of reality. To boil it down, Einstein believed in the old theory of physics: solid matter existing with or without humans, while Tagore was alluding to the mysterious theory of quantum physics that our perception or

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observation of matter is never really objective. The conversation illustrated the differences in Eastern and Western ways of thinking about reality, one more pragmatic while the other more spiritual. Now let's look at the typical hero in the East and West. A Western hero wants

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to change the world to make it better for himself and those around him, while an Eastern hero wants to change himself. Western superheroes fight evil to restore justice, justice, peace, correct the incorrect, while Asian heroes either accept their fate or retreat to a forest

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for some contemplation. Jesus, perhaps the greatest Western hero, confronted injustice and paid for it with his own life as a sacrifice. This can be seen manifested in Harry Potter as well. The Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, however, went to the

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forest to change himself. Laozi, the founder of Taoism, retreated to the mountains. In other words, Western philosophy is about change, while Eastern philosophy is more about accepting your fate. A great example of this in literature can be seen in the novels of the Japanese

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British Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro. His characters obey their fate and rarely question their somewhat unfair circumstances. However, a typical hero in the West would rebel against their circumstance to change the world. Accepting one's fate or putting up with

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an unfavorable environment is seen as a sign of weakness in the West, while those same traits are seen as a sign of strength in the East. By the East, my focus is mainly old India, China, and Japan. So a Western hero wants to change

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the world, while an Eastern hero wants to change himself to adapt. In today's world, East and West have come together a lot because the Western mode of production, i.e., capitalism, has taken over the world. But if you look closer, it deeper, you see

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a clear philosophical distinction. And if you go back in time, the distinction appears more clear. Why has Eastern philosophy's main focus been on mental well-being, happiness, spirituality, and community, while Western philosophy's main focus has been physical well-being,

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rational science, technology, materialism, and individualism? Of course, there's a broad generalization as there are so many philosophers on either side who are exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, the main distinction is spiritualism versus materialism, community versus individualism. So in

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this video, I'll look at some of the answers but also give more detail about the differences between Eastern and Western philosophy. Does the climate, terrain, and the soil have anything to do with it? Are merchants more concerned with materialism and farmers more with

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spirituality? Western philosophy, as we know, has its roots in ancient Greece and later in Rome. The Greeks and Romans were influenced by other civilizations such as the Egyptians and the Babylonians, but there are very little or no written

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records of an organized philosophy prior to the Greeks. Eastern philosophy has its roots in Indian civilization and the Chinese civilization. If you look at their geographies, Greece is made up of some islands between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, so large bodies of

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water sandwiching the land areas. So if you want to move around, all you need is a boat and you could hop from island to island. This allows a much smoother way to move things around. There's less friction on water than land. The ancient Greeks

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heavily relied on imported food due to its soil not being very fertile. As a result, the Greeks relied on trades which brought goods from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Central Europe and more. But with this commodity trade also came ideas and

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knowledge. So the region was a hub of cultural, scientific, and technological exchange. This promoted a more rational discourse which allowed the Greeks to develop a more sophisticated science. For example, Euclid's Elements is the oldest science book which I'm sure was

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influenced by the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Phoenicians. Pythagoras developed his mathematics. Aristotle studied all kinds of things including animals. In fact, the first Greek philosopher Thales was an olive merchant himself who based his philosophy on water being the most

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important thing in the world. He famously predicted that good weather, i.e., lots of rain, produced lots of olives, so he got very rich. So the Greeks relied on trade which allowed exchanges of ideas and practical sciences. Indian and Chinese

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civilizations, however, are more centered around rivers and mountains, in other words, quite different from ancient Greece. India and China were blessed by many rivers that brought amazing soil from the Himalayas, so their agricultural economy could sustain a

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huge population and big cities, making China and India mostly self-sufficient. Trade with other peoples was a plus but not essential. China's Yellow and Yangtze rivers and ancient India’s Indus and the Ganges rivers all start in the snowy

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mountains of the Himalayas and traverse thousands of kilometers which bring the fertile soil. It's no surprise that both India and China relied on a crop that is incredibly water-thirsty: rice. It's also no surprise that Sadhguru, the greatest

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Indian guru in the world today, has a simple message: save the soil, because soil and farming run really deep in Eastern philosophy. So Greece's geographical terrain allowed trade to flourish between various peoples and cultures, while ancient China and India

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relied on their rivers to bring good soil to them. The Greeks had to seek food from somewhere else, while the Chinese and Indians waited for their rivers to bring food to them. As a result, from a survival point of view, for the Greeks,

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merchants were the most important class of people, while in the East, farmers were the most important class of people. Since merchants are mobile while farmers are stationary because you cannot carry around your land, this allowed the Greeks to be more open-minded to new ideas, new

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technology, new sciences. Merchants are also less attached to their ways, therefore easily follow the market or commodity. Today you sell rice, tomorrow potato. Farmers, however, have a harder time to change and adapt quickly. So Western philosophy geared more towards

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pragmatic sciences, while Eastern philosophy geared more towards spiritualism. If merchants don't like something, they change, but if farmers don't get enough water, they wait for the following season or accept their fate. It's harder to leave your land and

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migrate. So Western philosophy is more change-oriented, while Eastern philosophy is more fatalistic and, in other words, to change yourself. Climate also plays a role. India and China tend to be warmer throughout, so it makes sense to be in here

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and now, which Buddhism teaches. Also, seasons play a predictable pattern every year and people live a more cyclical life. Monsoon comes every year. Rivers flood at a specific time of the year. In a way, it was very similar to the Egyptian

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way of life around the River Nile. Of course, when you rely on a river, you also experience great famines, but they come every few years or decade. The Greeks navigate the seas where you're, for the most part, in control of where you're

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going. Meanwhile, Eastern civilizations were centered around rivers. On rivers, your course is fixed. The river takes you where the river takes you. As a result, Eastern philosophy is more fatalistic. The fate of humans, animals, and plants are in the hands of the same rivers. It

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meant that they saw all living beings as part of one big family, so they didn't put humans as being outsiders or special or above everybody else.

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living being the Greeks however experien colder winter so they had to source and accumulate food for colder days since they relied on trade Wars always disrupted trade routs which meant you had to Source your food from somewhere else Merchants relied on peace time to

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continue trade but they also benefited from Wars as certain Commodities were more sought after it is the old adage War fuels the economy as monies moved around faster than peace time since things are pretty unpredictable the Greeks had to think long term and

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prepare not just for the cold winter but for the future in case of warfare future became the most important time not here now but next month next year you couldn't afford to be here now like a Zen Buddhist so this long-term or linear

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perception of time became the dominant way of looking at the world among the Greeks a famous example is Aristotle's theological philosophy that everything has a purpose usually a sing single destination in the future Western philosophy also through an exchange with the Middle Eastern

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religions like Judaism Christianity and later Islam came to understand that humans were separate from the Animal Kingdom we are kicked out of the Garden of Eden punished for our mistakes as a result you try to compensate for your

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past mistakes you want to correct the incorrect what do you do you fight for causes if you look at literature heroes are often people who have sinned or made terrible mistakes to redeem themselves they fight Injustice one way to fight

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for Injustice is to make other people's life better often materially you study the world you invent new technology to make life easier for others Eastern philosophers were not looking for material Comfort but more for mental and spiritual comfort Buddha and Lai left

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the city and their spiritual Quest and went to the mountains and forests Solitude allows you to seek answers inside you not on the outside even today most Buddhist temples in India Japan and China are located in the mountains and

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forests away from the crowd so people can get away from other people the core doctrine of Buddhism is the material Comfort doesn't make you happy in the long run the Greeks however gathered in the city to debate and dialogue like

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Socrates who would walk around on the streets of Athens asking people questions While others establish schools like Plato's Academy or Aristotle's Lum Western philosophy relied on dialog and exchange like Merchants do to flourish learn and improve the West built

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universities churches and schools in the middle of town and Villages so everyone could come not some remote temples that nobody could go to in is philosophy you don't force your will on nature to control or change it but you try to flow

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with nature since both India and Chinese civilization were centered around Rivers often River flow is seen as a Nature's Way in which you don't resist or remove obstacles in your way but move around those obstacles in other words you

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change yourself not the out outside world a good example is Indian traffic moves around an obstacle be it a cow or an accident while in the west a small accident on the road brings everything to a halt so Eastern philosophy tells

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you to be more fluid flexible like yoga and less rigid but Western philosophy realiz on manipulating nature through Science and Technology to make life easier for humans as a result we live in a very comfortable period in history

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millions of people couldn't survive to adulthood but today child mortality is its lowest in history people live long longer healthier but this also has negative consequences for other species on Earth as the more comfortable we are the harder it becomes for some other

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species in some areas Asians are an average physically smaller than Europeans perhaps due to genetic mutation or sexual selection or possibly due to eating less protein as Farmers rely on Rice which is a staple diet in most of Asia how to cope with

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poor diet martial arts in China and yoga and India are used to strengthen and discipline the body Eastern philosophy Center on the body as a vehicle to get to a higher place and this also means Eastern philosophy is more about

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avoiding conflict rather than confronting others taism and Buddhism and Hinduism promote nonviolence vegetarianism although Trend in the west today has been practiced in the East for thousands of years ganism is an Indian religion that promotes strict vegetarian diet and Gandhi a pacifist himself

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admired gism for that unlike Asians the Greeks at a lot of bread which is four times more protein Rich than rice since the Greek states were constantly fighting against one another as well as the Persians they developed the Olympic

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Games which was to train soldiers for Wars it is no surprise that it was the Greeks who made it all the way to India through Alexander the Great while we have no records of invading armies from India or China going to Persia or the

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Middle East it was the nomadic Mongols who made it to Europe not the more sophisticated civilization like the Chinese and Indians and in fact the Chinese built walls to Shield themselves from the Mongols and India was ravaged by a series of invasions by the Greeks

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the Persians the Muslims the Mongols and even the British why Eastern philosophy is less centered on Conquering the world but conquering yourself for example Buddhism is Center on the inner conflict of fighting or resisting your own desires if you focus on your inner

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conflict you're less likely to engage in an external physical conflict such as tribal or ideological and Hindu Yogi teaching your soul is the real you while your physical body is acquired through food you put in your mouth not just that

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you also acquire your ego or the sense of self through Impressions and experiences with others so your soul is permanent and your body and ego are temporary fleeting and acquired now Einstein versus tago conversation on the nature of reality makes sense Einstein

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sees an external World why tagor ises everything internal in other words Yogi philosophy is based on the pursuit of becoming one with the universe quantum physics has a similar theory that as soon as you observe something you change

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it in other words we are not separate from the world or Universe we are with the universe the world is not outside us but we are the universe it's inside us so yoga is one way to tap into or get

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closer to your Universal Soul by taming your body and ego and desires the idea is to let your soul control you not your body control your soul e Phil is based on negation of self while Western philosophy is firmly rooted in the idea

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of individual self as a result of this the East tends to be more communitarian where the individual is less important than the community or the universe while the West tends to be more individualistic buddhism's core philosophy is to remove the self to ease

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suffering wanting or Desiring is seen as negative because you are feeding the ego the Greeks are more of a Merchants mentality to grow more profit and become wealthier and wealthier Merchants are more more focused on material success and less concerned with his spiritual

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side of life as a result it was a Greeks who developed a more rational scientific method to understand the material world this scientific method allowed objectivity which meant that Greek Scholars could disagree with their mentors even thinkers like Plato openly

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disagreed with his teacher Socrates and Aristotle question Plato and the East however openly questioning your teacher was and still is a form of disrespect instead of finding flaws in those older than you you're supposed to respect this is especially important in confusion ISM

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Sensei is someone you do not challenge Western philosophy makes a distinction between good and evil as almost separate entities and separate individuals or even groups often in Warfare the enemy is seen as evil to motivate your soldiers to die in defense

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of good this is true on both sides so once you assigned goodness with one way of seeing the world the opposite of that is naturally bad or even evil this battle of good against evil allows progress those Victorious can claim

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goodness and they however both good and bad are seen as more psychological and less ideological so good and bad are one or two sides of the same coin the ying and yang and taism means every person has dark and light good and evil built

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in them good and evil coexists so no matter how much a site it progresses it doesn't change the core yingyang existence we as humans are neither good or bad but a bit of both our job is to understand these so we keep a good

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balance between the two forces I think the most fundamental difference between Easter Western philosophy is the idea of linear progress in the west versus a cyclical notion in the East especially in Indian philosophy the Greeks believed in progress Socrates developed his

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questioning method of getting to the objective truth Plato introduced the idea of perfection and Aristotle came out with Tils for purpose so getting to Socratic truth plus platonic Perfection and Aristotelian T laws or purpose give birth to a western Progressive

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philosophy and science so instead of focusing too much on the spiritual side of life the West focused on making the physical life easier by deploying a scientific method to understand the world and invent technologies that made life easier as a result most people

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today live a comfortable life thanks to Western civilization people live longer thanks to Western medicine and Technology when survival is no longer an issue people seek meaning and purpose so Eastern philosophy plays a major role in bringing inner peace for millions of

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people in the east as well as in the west who seek meaning Beyond material comfort so to sum up climate terrain and food impacted how the East and West prioritized philosophical understanding of the world the Greeks relied on

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Merchants and trade so the priority went to practical sciences and rationality while in the East farming allowed big cities to flourish and people live longer as a result philosophers were seeking happiness not physical Comfort life expectancy also grew in the East

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which allowed more reflection in old age when young people seek success but in old age people search for meaning next I'll discuss the Greek Trio of Socrates Plato and Aristotle by looking at the similarities and differences

Topics:Eastern philosophyWestern philosophyTagore and Einsteinspirituality vs materialismphilosophical differencescultural influencegeography and philosophyheroes in philosophyIndian philosophyGreek philosophy

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