Hans –Georg Gadamer, A

German philosopher, argues that

our tastes and judgments
regarding beauty work in
connection with one’s own
personal experience and culture.
 Gadamer believes that our culture
consists of the values and beliefs of
our time and our society.
That is why a “ dialog” or conversation
is important in interpreting works of
art.
 A conversation involves an exchange
between conversational partners that seek
agreement about some matter at issue;
consequently, such an exchange is never
completely under the control of either
conversational partner, but is rather
determined by the matter at issue.
conversation and understanding involve
coming to an agreement. All
understanding is, according to Gadamer,
interpretative and insofar as all
interpretation, involves the exchange
between the familiar and the alien, so all
interpretation is also translative.
Why Become a Philosopher?
On Attaining a Comprehensive
Outlook in Life
One of the key elements in
many educational reforms is
diversity, difference, and
choice or other proposals that
that establish separate routes
for different groups or
individuals.
Diversity is the
difference that makes
each person unique.
(i.e.,biology, ethnicity,
culture, family life,
Beliefs,geography,
experiences and religion).
Educational challenge in the
21 century entails
st

appropriate acceptance of
cultural and racial
multiplicity.
The two places exercise the
various view points of
Philosophy

 Western , and
 Non-western
A. Expanding Our
Philosophical Frames:
Western and Non-Western
Traditions
•Three (3) great original
centers of philosophy in
the world
Greek (or Western),India,
and chinese
Asian classics of the Indians and the
Chinese
•Predate the oldest of western classics.
Indians and Chinese philosophers of
note also lived earlier than their greek
counterparts.
During the 1st centuries.,there was
more philosophical activity in the East
than in the West. Greeks before Thales
did not have philosophy.
From the time of the greek triumvirate
(Socrates ,Aristotle and Plato there was a
reversal.
The western thinkers started
to indulge in feverish
philosophical speculation,
whereas the Asian thinkers
began diminishing
philosophical activity.
In our present century,almost all the
major philosophical ideas emanate
from Western thinkers.

There are multiple cultures and there

are different types of states in terms
of modern economic modernization..
The culture of the “ East” is very different from
that of the “West”(Europe,North America)., but
that does mean each culture is incapable of
understanding certain features of the other.

 as the world becomes “smaller”,it is

increasingly important to develop an
understanding of culture centers around the
globe that are very different from our own.
Each society or culture has its own ideas of
itself, a definition of what is important in life,
and its own notions of what the world is like in
general terms.

Each society or culture can be said to have its

own “Philosophy”.
Three (3) Attitudinal imperatives
that we must bear in mind if we are to
appreciate either the Oriental or Eastern
thought and mindset and to situate in their
perspective
 1st attitudinal emperatives, In the contrast to
the propensity of the West to think in a linear
manner.
In terms of beginning and ending in a
straight line, Oriental thoughts runs in a
circular manner in which the end conjoins
the beginning in a cyclic style.
 In a manner of speaking,nothing actually
begins absolutely or ends absolutely.
A man may have been born at a precise time
and may have died at a precise time, and
when he dies, his life continues in another
form.
This is indispensable to the understanding
of samsara or rebirth.
 there is a cycle of rebirths within the
various spheres of life,the vegetative,animal,
and human.
The world,in fact,did not have an absolute
beginning but was merely a continuation of
an earlier world in an earlier time.,there
is,therefore,a succession of worlds and a
succession of lives.
 the 2nd attitudinal emperative is the assumption that the
East does not make a rigorous distinction between religion
and philosophy.
Basic philosophical concepts are shrouded in religious
beliefs and myths.

However,it is a false conclusion that Eastern

philosophies,such as Chinese and Indian,are not
sufficiently philosophical to be considered philosophy but
are more properly called “religion” or “mythology.”
In the East,Philosophy is Religion and
Religion is Philosophy.
The Oriental does not cut off Philosophy that
is thought,from religion that is life in action.
Life for Oriental thinkers is a translation of
thought; It is philosophy in action.Orientals
believe that life must be the extension of
thought,its fruit, and its application.
According to Quito,it is not accurate to judge that
Asia is poor because of religion. Rather ,it is poor
because it cannot accept the polarization or
division of theory and practice, of philosophy and
religion of its way of thinking and its way of living.
Quito suggested that only if Asia could find a
means of adjusting its vision by making religion
and speculation go together,by reconciling elusive
theory with practice,then Asia, too,could become
progressive like the west.
The 3rd attitudinal imperative is the
acceptance of the validity of intuition and
mysticism, the readiness to revert to extra
logical,if not illogical modes of thinking.
Orientals are perceived of transcending the
limitations of the human intellect and
treading on a no-man’s land where
verification of one’s premise is not possible.
Oriental thought does not follow structured
mode. By its very nature,it cannot but be intuitive
and mystic.
The West has but to theorize and speculate; no
application to life is necessary. Such are the
Platonic,Hegelian,Kantian, and Fichtean theories
to which the Western philosophers render lip
service; their application to practice is still being
constested by other Western Philosophers.
 As Quito remarked
The concept of all-at-once-ness which is a hallmark of the
mind of Asia is annoying to the Western mind which cannot
shake off its structural mode of thinking in terms of
beginning and end,of before and after,of then and now and
later. This is no doubt applicable to individual things and
events which the Asian mind does not reject,but when the
line of reasoning and understanding is raised from the
fragmentary to the total,from the piecemeal to the
whole,from the part to that all of the world of things,the
Asian mind balks at the “illogic” of applying the same
principles pertaining only to the fragments to that of the
Whole.
 The Knower and the Known: East and West
Distinction

For the Eastern version,life becomes illusory I

we are attached to the world and in which we
are ensnared is not what is. In terms of
knowledge,our everyday experience of the
world presents us with dualistic distinction-
me/youor subject/object.
 The Knower and the Known: East and West
Distinction

However,this is artificial; our egos fool us into

seeing separation. The distinction between
knower and known is essentially artificial for
the Eastern version.
The Knower and the Known: East and West Distinction

If logic is no longer able to solve a life problem,Asian

mind resorts to intuition.
From the very fact that it thinks in a cyclic all-at-once-
ness,it must resort to means other than the usual mental
processes applicable to the piecemeal and fragmentary.
One should not therefore be surprised at its propensity to
mysticism,at its use of super-consciousness,or of the
existence of a third eye or a sixth sense. When the
situation demands,it reverses the logical patterns.