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A Convergence Of Civilizations

Submitted by SDG, Mar 21, 2008 11:26

It is an aberration of the 'civilized' mind to create false dichotomies based on make-believe abstract categories, i.e., 'East' and 'West'. Peoples occupying territories in whatever location (North, South, East or West) do not easily fit into monolithic ideological mindsets, such as Orientalism vis-a-vis Occidentalism, but rather belong to social and economic formations (tribes, confederacies, nations, nation-states, etc.) that have experienced exploitation and colonization by one empire or another at different times, and have their own histories, religions, languages, and cultures . For a concrete layered example from recent New World history, please see Spicer's Cycles of Conquest.

Using false dichotomies as an epistemological tool, the 'civilized' mind sees a 'tree' in the forest, whereas the 'non-civilized' mind may see an elm, a walnut, an oak, a palm, an eucalyptus...Human cognitive systems encompass all of human experience and not just particular unidirectional dimensions.

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Other reader comments on this article

Comment	By	Date
Jesus Christ, Mohammad and Gautam Buddha were all Asians. It is interesting that the West has got its religions from... [MORE]	Dev	Mar 23, 2008 12:59
Of course, Pagden is very simplistic. Nor do I see any reason to compare the relatively benign Persian Empire --which... [MORE]	Elliott A Green	Mar 22, 2008 19:41
Thank you for writing this article. Everytime someone claims "the EAST" is pitted against "the WEST", I get so grated... [MORE]	Daniel	Mar 21, 2008 18:26
It is not just the different between india, arab region, eastern asia there is also a big difference between even... [MORE]	esraa ahmed	Mar 24, 2008 10:26
When Adam Kirsch concludes by beating Padgen with the club of Western slave trade and the Holocaust, we know he... [MORE]	Doug McMillan	Mar 21, 2008 12:38
It is an aberration of the 'civilized' mind to create false dichotomies based on make-believe abstract categories, i.e., 'East' and...	SDG	Mar 21, 2008 11:26
When Kipling said East and west are on different polar he want to tell that West's philosophy and India's philosophy... [MORE]	Ramesh Raghuvanshi	Mar 21, 2008 02:33
The longtime attempts of often scurrilous authors to paint the West, particularly during any era of conflict, as the exclusive... [MORE]	Caleb Carr	Mar 20, 2008 19:30
C. Northcote Parkinson, the author of Parkinson's Law, wrote a fine book on the same subject, called East and West.... [MORE]	Graham Asher	Mar 20, 2008 11:37
Iran's first election is for religious extremists. Seems the same as 2000 yrs ago. [MORE]	don	Mar 20, 2008 19:31
The author seems to be unaware of the fact that both East and West--Europe and the Middle East, which Kipling... [MORE]	RBC	Mar 20, 2008 08:35
Readers may wonder why this "2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West" startswith Greek sources. The Bible offers narratives of earlier... [MORE]	Don Phillipson	Mar 20, 2008 08:32
The next lines of Kipling's 'Ballad of East and West', run like this: "... But there is neither East... [MORE]	ferengi	Mar 20, 2008 08:00
Kipling was right when stated that philosophy, way of life are polar between India and West..He refered India versus West.... [MORE]	Ramesh Raghuvanshi	Mar 20, 2008 03:15
The attempt to read much of human history as conflict between East and West is as Adam Kirsch points out... [MORE]	Shalom Freedman	Mar 19, 2008 03:29
Is there a single West standing opposed to a single East? No, there are multiple wests, overlappingly in various states... [MORE]	Bill	Mar 19, 2008 22:32

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