East_West_Philosophers

Assignment: East and West Philosophers Comparison January 30, 2011 Assignment: East and West Philosophers Comparison The Eastern Philosopher that I chose is Siddhārtha Gautama, otherwise also known as Buddha. Siddhartha came from a family that had kept him sheltered and away from despair and suffering in the world. However, when he reached adulthood, he started traveling and came across a land filled with despair and suffering. He did not like the despair and suffering he saw so he started a new religion, in which he hoped to teach people how to find the way to enlightenment that would hopefully end suffering and despair. His method of teaching was first to learn the “Four Noble Truths,” these truths being. 1. Suffering does exist, 2. Suffering has specific identifiable causes, 3. Suffering can indeed finish quickly and completely, 4. There is an Eightfold Path to ending suffering and once these noble truths have been learned, one could proceed on to learning and practicing the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is: 1. Right View – in the best and most effective way, or a way that will be successful: 2. Right Aim – to overcome selfishness especially in spite of obstacles: 3. Right Speech – speaking only the truth accurately and consistent with the facts: 4. Right Action – acting only in ways that are not hurtful or harmful holding the correct opinion about somebody or something: 5. Right Living – living according to the law correct in what you say or do, especially legally or morally justified in saying or doing it: 6. Right Effort – fighting against immoral and corrupt conditions and make the facts or the truth of a situation clear: 7. Right Mindfulness – a duty to attain enlightenment and achieve a desired state: 8. The Right Contemplation – is an ultimate concentration of the mind that incorporates the previous seven folds of the path, and concepts associated with the shared experience of a culture, society, or community: The views of philosophers differed greatly from the Western world and the views of Eastern philosophers. Eastern philosophy closely relates too and interwoven with religious undertones, but Western philosophy is not closely intertwined with religion. I believe that the only relevant way these two philosophers are similar is that they both strongly believed in their own philosophies and that they believed their knowledge was very worthy that needed sharing. John Dewey is a western philosopher and Siddhartha Gautama is a philosopher from the Far East, John Dewey was born in the 1850's and lived until the 1950's he saw many drastic changes occur during his life. He observed slavery, emancipation, white supremacy, the fight for women to vote, during each period, he had words of wisdom he was an integral part of United States history (Moore, Bruder). John Dewey was a pragmatist and his type of pragmatism is instrumentalism, which means that he believed that all human actions, including thoughts, are instruments that people use to solve practical problems, John Dewey had the opinion that "nature is experience" he believed that everyone experienced things in different ways(Moore, Bruder). What a fruit tree was for one person was different from what another person perceived fruit trees to be, to one person the fruit tree has healthy tasty snacks. To a grower the fruit tree is a source of income, to a homeowner fruit trees can be a nuisance when the tree produces more fruit than needed and litters the ground. He did not believe in idealism what an object is perceived to be by a person differs from another, but he did not mean that the thought defines the object and each person has a different use for the fruit. Therefore, the activity of the fruit tree defines a person's thought process about the fruit tree but the fruit tree does not change what it is, the use of the fruit changes, and is a simple example of John Dewey's instrumentalism (Field, 2001). He argued that the use and importance of an item differs from person to person and was very compelling in his argument; I believe and identify more with western thinking, because of the way I was raised and because of the country where I was born. I grew up in the western world and the religion taught to me was that of one God being the Father to us all, and responsible for us all, and that God can perform miracles and lives in Heaven, where he/she rules. Now when older I believe now things are incorporated into my beliefs and ways of thinking that are a combination of both western and eastern philosophies, and the ways that I think about things that will make me take on different actions. So that I can comprehend the meaning or truth of something and change the ways that I think about things that will further my belief in one God, I have come to my own personal philosophical way of thinking that works for me. That is a combination of ways that I believe gets me through every day and provides me with measures of comfort and happiness when I need them, and knowing that “Impermanent are all created things, Strive on with awareness,” (Velez, 2008). References Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Peer-Reviewed Academic Resource, Retrieved January 29, 2011 from http://www.iep.utm.edu/buddha/ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Peer-Reviewed Academic Resource, Retrieved January 30, 2011 from http://www.iep.utm.edu/dewey/ Moore−Bruder: Philosophy: The Power of Ideas, Seventh Edition, Chapter, 15 Eastern Influences Retrieved January 30, 2011 from McGraw−Hill Companies, 2008