The briefest look at a Western storm and the still Chinese sea
Is there some great foundation to our western search for meaning, which contains us in its bosom?
How better to expand our knowledge than to understand the philosophy of another culture, to expand our ever-open sphere of knowledge. Then, we can look back on ourselves and see how much of our seemingly objective attitudes may not be quite so universal.
For we in the West find ourselves uncomfortably settled in nature, searching for something greater beyond us; and we cannot trust our flawed selves, so we must have proof of something outside of us, something objective: First God, and at his silent death, science.
Yet many a chinese writer took for granted that we were part of nature, with the philosophy aimed to gently remind us all of this! So this existential torment, this seemingly objective search for the meaning of life; is it not just the refraction of the light of truth through a certain cultural lens?
(All a great generalization: For 'West' is varied and 'Chinese' broad, and my knowledge of the far east is slight, but let it do as a taster for things to come!)
The Philosophy Takeaway 'The Meaning of Life' Issue 29
