UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

ACTIVITY NO. 5

Differences between Western and Eastern society, culture and individuals.

EASTERN THOUGHTS
-Philosophy is much more into groups or society or people’s actions and thoughts
as one in order to find meaning in life and finding meaning in discovering the true
“me” in relation to everything around them as a part of a bigger scheme.
- You should live in a way that God demands.
-Every single aspect of a follower’s life will be defined by the concepts of
obedience, submission and dedication.
-Eastern beliefs tell that self’s direction is outward
-In Confucianism and Taoism ,one must not put himself/ herself above nature or
other people.
-In Buddhism, a person must keep away the selfish desires totally away from the
picture in order to experience “nirvana”.
--In Taoism, one is not only extension of the family or the community, it is part of
the universe. One must live selfless but not forgetting about self, instead the life
must be balanced, open and accepting change, thinking about equality as well as
other beings.
WESTERN THOUGHTS
-Approach to the World was formed around a materialistic view with a rational
realism which seeks the reality of the nature of everything by studying their
attributes and properties.
-Western culture about self is focused in self as an individual, therefore it is in
‘inward direction’.
-Self controls the environment.
-Most philosophies are from Greece.
- To Plato, a Western philosopher a person already knows what is good because
that person will respond innately to the quality of goodness in the writing and will
also respond to the concept of goodness in one’s life.
- Socrates “ An unexamined life not worth living.”
-Aristotle “ Happiness defends upon ourselves.”

THEIR SIMILARITIES:
 Both philosophies focus on virtues.
 Confucius analects deal with both the inner and outer life of a person while
Aristotle’s works emphasize how one should conduct one’s self to live well
among others. Mo-Ti , some claim , aims at a holistic understanding of
one’s self and one’s surroundings while a western philosopher like Plato
emphasizes specific goals one should strive for in discovering what is true
and real in life.

(Sir hindi po column ang nagawa ko kase sa Word sa cellphone lang po ako naggagawa ng activity.Thank
you po sa pag unawa Sir. Keepsafe and Godbless po)