EAST AND WEST IN THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE |
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| Authors: | Marc R. Dupuis |
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| Affiliation: | Professor of theoretical physical chemistry at the University of Paris 6 (Laboratoire de Chimie Physique, 11 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France). He has been the science counselor of the French Embassy in Japan and currently is director of the Observatoire Français des Techniques Avancées in Paris. At the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, he teaches on the role of science and technology in Japan. This paper was presented during sub-conference IV, "The Encounter between East and West and the Creation of a Global Culture," of the World Academic Conference of the Seoul Olympiad (21 August-8 September 1988). The paper is reprinted with the permission of WASCO, which is publishing the conference proceedings in a series of books under the conference's general title, "The World Community in Post-Industrial Society."©1989 by the Korea Christian Academy. |
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| Abstract: | Abstract. Technological changes affect Western culture in three ways: the ratio between the lifetimes of technologies and the human lifetime is inverted; the three principal realms of human life (the home, the workplace, and leisure activity), as well as political systems, are affected; and the cohesion of the social body is threatened. The impact on Eastern culture is softened by a clearer role assigned to school, the resulting level of education, and the influence of Confucian ethics. However, acculturation will vary among countries, depending on the communication ability in the respective societies and the degree of development of social cellular structures, which are the most able to manage complexity. |
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| Keywords: | Confucianism East and West technological changes and society |
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