When studying the history of political and legal thought, it is necessary to consider the specific features of the two main cultural worlds that make up a single and, at the same time, different humanity. In the West, rationality triumphs, a stubborn striving for knowledge and reorganization of the world. In turn, in the East, gradual, evolutionary development is more manifested. The West’s superiority in technical, economic, and military-strategic terms has generated in the minds of a certain circle of researchers the illusion of the inferiority of the Eastern world. Only a few years ago, cultural differences between countries began to be analyzed in terms of the difference in people’s thinking (Robson). In assessing the relationship between these two civilizations, the following concept should dominate: eliminating cultural differences is inevitable over time.
In logic, the dichotomy is when the scope of a concept is divided into two mutually exclusive classes. However, from logic, this term migrated to other sciences, including social ones. The first and most crucial dichotomy is life and death; the second is the dream of perfect self-realization and the limited life span. The third is the contradiction between the craving for loneliness and the thirst for interpersonal communication.
The primary dichotomy of theology and philosophy – soul and body – was the subject of deep reflections by Plato and Aristotle. This is the problem of the relationship between mind and matter, mind and brain. After Rene Descartes formulated it in the 17th century, it laid the foundation for the concept of dualism: according to it, though, a matter being immaterial is radically separate from the body (Marion, 47). There is also an opposite concept – monism, which claims that the body and mind are two different aspects of the same phenomenon that gave rise to them.
Origins of ideas about a person striving for maximum self-realization are associated with the theory of A. Maslow. It is one of the most significant theories that has served as a fundamental basis for the study of self-actualization. Researchers of the existential direction develop the idea of the absence of a biologically determined human essence and say that the self is a lifetime structure. For V. Frankl, self-actualization is not the goal of a person’s life but a means of achieving meaning, which is made possible by exiting oneself to gain a sense (SuperSummary, 27). Self-realization in Western psychological studies is interpreted as a process of identification in life, associated with the search and approval of one’s unique path.
The problem of isolation is central to the work of many prominent representatives of modern Western thought. Analysis of the phenomenon of alienation acquires a particular character and acuteness in the works of Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and many other authors (Sørensen and Svanøe, 56). For example, Fromm sees history as a man’s flight from freedom, leading to the growth of human alienation and dramatic collisions of the 20th century (Sørense and Svanøe, 73).
In turn, for Habermas, the rationalization of communicative ties becomes a strategy for removing isolation (Sørensen and Svanøe, 61). This dichotomy seems to be the most interesting since globalization inevitably influences the way people perceive their needs for communication. Moreover, it is fascinating to note how social connections are essential in Western civilizations that do not support collectivist ideas. While in eastern cultures, aimed at the collective, self-proclamation and the practice of leaving society are pretty common.
Currently, the West and the East unite in search of a solution to humanity’s spiritual development problems. A holistic vision and effective solution to issues are dictated by modern society’s ever-increasing and changing needs. Improving scientific and medical knowledge, practical skills, and technical equipment is possible only with a systematic study of these two opposite points of view. This is successfully implemented in the exchange of scientific knowledge and practical experience between researchers from different countries.
References
Marion, Jean-Luc. On Descartes’ Passive Thought. The Myth of Cartesian Dualism. 2018. University of Chicago Press.
Robson, David. “Psychologists are Uncovering the Surprising Influence of Geography on Our Reasoning, Behaviour, and Sense of Self.” BBC Future. 2017. Web.
Sørensen, Asger, Svanøe, Lisbet Rosenfeldt. Capitalism, Alienation and Critique. Studies in Economy and Dialectics (Dialectics, Dentology and Democracy, Vol. 1). 2019. Brill.
SuperSummary, Study Guide. Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. 2019. Independently Published.