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A review by jwsg
The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard Nisbett
3.0
In some ways, this book reminded me of Guy Deutscher's Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, where the latter discussed the relationship between language, culture and perception. That's the fun part of the book, learning how culture shapes the way we perceive and analyse the world. The downside is that unlike Deutscher, Nisbett doesn't have the most engaging writing style - it's pretty dry and academic in style and in Nisbett's efforts to demonstrate the rigour of his analysis, the book can feel a little draggy at times.
Nisbett argues that many of the differences between Eastern and Western thought originate in the very different political structures these societies had. Greek democracy and its cosmopolitan, trade-based economy emphasised the importance of the individual - individual identity and personal agency were key. By contrast, Chinese society, which was predominantly Han, feudal and agrarian in nature emphasised the importance of the collective, where harmony and self-control were key. Nisbett notes that "Chinese society made the individual feel very much a part of a large, complex, and generally benign social organism where clear mutual obligations served as a guide to ethical conduct."
These contrasting characteristics come through in all aspects of Greek and Chinese culture. For the Chinese, "the ideal of happiness was not, as for the Greeks, a life allowing the free exercise of distinctive talents, but the satisfactions of a plain country life shared within a harmonious social network. Whereas Greek cases and wine goblets show pictures of battles, athletic contests, and bacchanalian parties, ancient Chinese scrolls and porcelains depict scenes of family activities and rural pleasures....[The Chinese] monophonic music reflected the Chinese concern with unity. Singers would all sing the same melody and musical instruments played the same notes at the same time. [By contrast] the Greeks...invented polyphonic music, where different instruments, and different voices, take different parts."
These characteristics similarly influenced their science and philosophy. Whereas the Greeks sought to understand the properties of discrete objects and to categorise and order them, the Chinese saw everything as interconnected and that understanding context was key. "The reluctance of the Chinese to perform surgery is completely understandable in light of their views about harmony and relationships. Health was dependent on the balance of forces in the body and the relationship between its parts...The notion that the removal of a malfunctioning or diseased part of the body could be beneficial, without attending to its relations to other parts of the body, would have been too simple-minded for the Chinese to contemplate. By contrast, surgery has been practised in many different Western societies for thousands of years." Moreover, "there has never been a strong interest in knowledge for its own sake in China." "Chinese [scientific] advances reflected a genius for practicality, not a penchant for scientific theory and investigation....In Confucianism, there was not thought of knowing that did not entail some consequence for action."
Whereas Greek philosophy was characterised by abstraction, and resolving contradictions using logic and debate, Chinese philosophy "favoured the most concrete sense impressions in understanding the world...the Chinese language itself is remarkably concrete. There is no word for 'size' for example. If you want to fit someone for their shoes, you ask them for the 'bigsmall' of their feet. There is no equivalent to 'ness' in Chinese. So there is no 'whiteness' - only the white of the swan or the white of the snow."
All this sets the context for the very different ways in which Westerners and Asians act and perceive the world, where (broadly speaking):
- Western parents focus on building self-esteem, establishing uniqueness and building independence while Asian parents focus on teaching children to blend harmoniously with others, including being sensitive to what others are conveying. These different upbringings - from the values emphasised to the vocabulary that babies are exposed to (nouns vs verbs) - socialise Western and Asian kids in very different ways.
- Westerners debate while Asians seek to build consensus in order to maintain group harmony.
- Westerners perceive the world in terms of objects; Asians see the world in terms of relationships
- Westerners tend to attribute behaviour to the actor while Asians are inclined to attribute behaviour to context.
Nisbett concludes the book by showing the real world implications of these differences - how they manifest in varied contexts from medicine and boardroom discussions, to contracts and science and rhetoric; from international relations and religion, to human rights and legal practice.
Nisbett argues that many of the differences between Eastern and Western thought originate in the very different political structures these societies had. Greek democracy and its cosmopolitan, trade-based economy emphasised the importance of the individual - individual identity and personal agency were key. By contrast, Chinese society, which was predominantly Han, feudal and agrarian in nature emphasised the importance of the collective, where harmony and self-control were key. Nisbett notes that "Chinese society made the individual feel very much a part of a large, complex, and generally benign social organism where clear mutual obligations served as a guide to ethical conduct."
These contrasting characteristics come through in all aspects of Greek and Chinese culture. For the Chinese, "the ideal of happiness was not, as for the Greeks, a life allowing the free exercise of distinctive talents, but the satisfactions of a plain country life shared within a harmonious social network. Whereas Greek cases and wine goblets show pictures of battles, athletic contests, and bacchanalian parties, ancient Chinese scrolls and porcelains depict scenes of family activities and rural pleasures....[The Chinese] monophonic music reflected the Chinese concern with unity. Singers would all sing the same melody and musical instruments played the same notes at the same time. [By contrast] the Greeks...invented polyphonic music, where different instruments, and different voices, take different parts."
These characteristics similarly influenced their science and philosophy. Whereas the Greeks sought to understand the properties of discrete objects and to categorise and order them, the Chinese saw everything as interconnected and that understanding context was key. "The reluctance of the Chinese to perform surgery is completely understandable in light of their views about harmony and relationships. Health was dependent on the balance of forces in the body and the relationship between its parts...The notion that the removal of a malfunctioning or diseased part of the body could be beneficial, without attending to its relations to other parts of the body, would have been too simple-minded for the Chinese to contemplate. By contrast, surgery has been practised in many different Western societies for thousands of years." Moreover, "there has never been a strong interest in knowledge for its own sake in China." "Chinese [scientific] advances reflected a genius for practicality, not a penchant for scientific theory and investigation....In Confucianism, there was not thought of knowing that did not entail some consequence for action."
Whereas Greek philosophy was characterised by abstraction, and resolving contradictions using logic and debate, Chinese philosophy "favoured the most concrete sense impressions in understanding the world...the Chinese language itself is remarkably concrete. There is no word for 'size' for example. If you want to fit someone for their shoes, you ask them for the 'bigsmall' of their feet. There is no equivalent to 'ness' in Chinese. So there is no 'whiteness' - only the white of the swan or the white of the snow."
All this sets the context for the very different ways in which Westerners and Asians act and perceive the world, where (broadly speaking):
- Western parents focus on building self-esteem, establishing uniqueness and building independence while Asian parents focus on teaching children to blend harmoniously with others, including being sensitive to what others are conveying. These different upbringings - from the values emphasised to the vocabulary that babies are exposed to (nouns vs verbs) - socialise Western and Asian kids in very different ways.
- Westerners debate while Asians seek to build consensus in order to maintain group harmony.
- Westerners perceive the world in terms of objects; Asians see the world in terms of relationships
- Westerners tend to attribute behaviour to the actor while Asians are inclined to attribute behaviour to context.
Nisbett concludes the book by showing the real world implications of these differences - how they manifest in varied contexts from medicine and boardroom discussions, to contracts and science and rhetoric; from international relations and religion, to human rights and legal practice.