Panentheisms East and West

In the West panentheism is known as the view that the world is contained within the divine, though God is also more than the world. I trace the history of this school of philosophy in both Eastern and Western traditions. Although the term is not widely known, the position in fact draws together a broad range of important positions in 20th and 21st century metaphysics, theology, and philosophy of religion. I conclude with some reflections on the practical importance of this position.     

Freedom: East and West

This paper explains some of the uses of the word ‘freedom’ in Western as well as in Indian philosophy. Regarding the psychological concept of freedom or free will, this paper focuses on the distinction between fatalism, determinism, types of compatibilism, and libertarianism. Indian philosophers, by and large, are compatibilists, although some minor systems, such as Śākta Āgama, favor a type of libertarianism. From the Indian perspective the form of life of human beings has also been mentioned in the discussion of free will. Regarding metaphysical freedom, I discuss the views of the Bhagavad Gītā and Swami Vivekananda in Sect. III. K.C. Bhattacharyya, a neo-Advaita Vedāntin, has discussed degrees of freedom of the subject at several levels. According to him, spiritual progress lies in the progressive realization of the freedom of the subject. I compare his view with the classical Advaita concept of freedom. I have also addressed the question of whether freedom from suffering can be realized at social and global levels. In this context I have mentioned some of the interpretations of the great saying ‘I am Brahman,’ and how freedom can be realized at the global level by using the Advaita concept of ‘oneness.’     

East of West,West of East: a matter of global and local identity

Research is a very personal matter. On the basis of experiences in different countries with researchers from different cultures over many years, some observations will be described. The conceptual frame of this attempt is to look for anthropological universals and cultural specifics. Much can be learned from spatial representations in the arts. Whereas in the West since Renaissance time the central perspective has become dominant in visual art, in Eastern landscape paintings the “floating view” is typical. The claim that the central perspective corresponds to geometric laws and matches how we see the world is misleading for at least two reasons: It violates mechanisms of size constancy, and the visual world is spatially reduced in pictures to the perifoveal region only. Research on spatial attention has disclosed two different attentional systems being responsible either for near-fovea vision or for the far periphery. This fundamental principle as a global characteristic of visual processing is neglected in Western art. In Eastern art with a floating view geometric laws are violated, and different potential perspectives are integrated within a holistic pattern. The semantics of what shall be expressed becomes important irrespective of physical parameters. The latter may also create the unique phenomenon of becoming subjectively part of the picture confirming personal identity. Cultural specifics like in the arts (what one might expect) can surprisingly also be observed in theoretical considerations about visual processing. Whereas in the tradition of Western science visual percepts are built up with local elements like feature detectors, in an important Chinese theory global topological features are analyzed first. An important task of the brain is to create the identity of a percept on the basis of spatially and temporally distributed neural activities. It is, thus, an important theoretical question how to deal with the challenge to create and maintain the identity of a percept for some time. It is suggested that one should leave behind a monocausal reasoning for such explanations but adopt for analytical strategies the concept of complementarity as a generative principle.     

Emotions and Creativity, East and West

This article is concerned with emotion, creativity, and the intersection of the two – creativity in the domain of emotion. We first present a framework for the analysis of emotion, a framework that recognizes the importance of biological influences but that also takes into account cultural and individual variations. We then describe the criteria – effectiveness, novelty, and authenticity – for judging a response as creative; the relative emphasis placed on these criteria, especially novelty and authenticity, helps account for East–West differences in aesthetic preferences (e.g., in the production and evaluation of works of art). Next, we explore the ability of individuals to be emotionally creative, that is, to acquire emotions that meet the criteria for creativity. Finally, we examine the "Four-Seven Debate," a classic in Korean Neo-Confucian thought, in light of our discussion of emotions and creativity.     

Athletic Virtue: Between East and West

Despite the rich philosophical heritage of the East, the connection between athletics and education for character or virtue is more commonly associated with the West. Classical Eastern philosophy does focus on virtue, but it seems to exclude sport as a means of cultivation since the Confucian is uninterested in victory and the Daoist seeks passivity and avoids contention. A closer look reveals, however, that Eastern conceptions of virtue have much in common with those of Ancient Greece so often linked to sport. Combining research in the history and philosophy of sport with analysis of such texts such as the Analects of Kongzi (Confucius), Laozi's Daodejing, Plato's Republic and Epictetus's Handbook, this paper argues that the enlightened practice of sport has the potential to cultivate qualities common both to de and aretē. The fact that sport was linked to virtue in Ancient Greece but not Ancient China derives from different ideas about social prestige more than different conceptions of ethical education. Indeed, the enlightened practice of modern sport may develop a more universal kind of virtue; thereby providing common ground upon which to heal the East-West split in a way characterised by mutual respect and emphasising our common humanity.     

East and West: Transpersonal Psychology and Cross-Cultural Counseling

In this article, the authors examine cross-cultural counseling (specifically Western counselor-Eastern client) within a transpersonal psychological framework. A meta-model is presented that allows counselors to adopt attitudes that transcend cultural differences. The benefit for counselors would be a superordinate framework in which various, specific counseling strategies could be better understood.     

东方和西方：“深刻”之概念

本文将对一个哲学家极少谈及但不失为哲学敏感话题的概念进行一番梳理,以此促进吾侪对其之理解.我试图证明的是,理解这一概念可以借助比较研究的方法.     

略论东、西方的"灵魂论"

人类对世界的认识是从身外的天体和动物之类开始的。蒙昧时期的人类智力和生产力同样低下,由于对强大的自然现象不理解,认为冥冥之中必有某种超自然力的东西主宰着宇宙万物,遂把这个主宰者称作神灵,即产生了最初的万物有灵即“神”的观念。起初,人们以特异的动物为神,比如中国的“四灵”(龙、凤、麟和龟)以及西方的太阳神(公狼)和狮身人面像(斯芬克斯)之类。进入文明时期以后,先后取代动物神地位的是被认为具有