Topic 4: Western philosophy seems to have no end while
Eastern philosophy has
The history of Western philosophy, in my view, can be best
conceptualized as an intellectual activity which is undertaken
without a thought that some day they will attain the
final point of perfectness. Certainly, at the beginning, most
of Greek philosophers seem to believe that their main objective
in exploring nature is to have the perfect knowledge
about the universe. But as time more passes, Western
thinkers have been more and more convinced that their task
in exploring nature might be endless. But that is not the
problem if we do not think that there is some perfectness in
terms of knowledge waiting for us ahead but life can be
more and more meaningful if we do not stop exploring
things. This means that in the view of Western philosophers,
the exploration of things in the universe is a valuable
activity in itself. A man who spends his life to explore nature,
like the scientist, counts living a valuable life.
Some people in the Eastern culture, such as some Buddhists
in Thailand, would argue that the exploration of external
things might have nothing related to self-cultivation. I think
the way Western thinkers understand the term ‘selfcultivation’
is not same as the one adopted among some
Eastern people as said—note that it is not all people in the
East to think like this. Exploring nature can be compared to
a journey to see things in the world. It is true that seeing the
world does not improve our life in terms of morality, as understood
by Buddhists of this group. But journey the world
causes an understanding. The more we see the more we
understand. Understanding mind in the view of Western
-8-