Why do westerners today keep on seeking recourse to eastern "philosophy" and religion to alleviate their spirituality...

why do westerners today keep on seeking recourse to eastern "philosophy" and religion to alleviate their spirituality bankruptcy but proceed to ignore the massive literature made on the topic by the west? i find it really weird and almost counter-intuitive. i'm sure most decently educated burgers have at least heard of someone like emerson and most westerners of plato

Average pleb is infected with post modernist/leftist cynicism and self hatred. World war 2, communist genocides and the holocaust were thst traumatic to the western psyche.

maybe they want to search but are afraid to find something conclusive

woah hot takes there bud, haven't heard these nuggets of golden wisdom before. pls tell me more about the western psyche

Why does it matter?

i dont really know but its just interesting to think about. you'd think that people brought upon by a certain tradition would be more inclined to read works in their tradition rather than a wholly foreign one due to ease of understanding and pragmatic reasons of accessibility. perhaps some form of "reset", so to speak, took place but at this point im just thinking out loud

Thats all ive got so far. Glad we can agree on it though.

Who gives a shit about ease of understanding and pragmatism? We're humans.

nobody does this but hippies though

I'm not a hippy and I'm fascinated by all western and eastern philosophies. That said I particularly like, and agree with, Buddhist philosophy and do my best to adhere to it. Though, I don't use it as, or think of it as, a religion. At least not to me, personally.

Because the westerners (mainly celebrities and hippies) view the east as if it has a sort of "exotic mysticism" about it that attracts them. They think that they will find some sort of secret wisdom by meditating in the mountains or something. It's just baseless fetishizing of another (distant) culture.

I mean people who duck into eastern philosophy at the expense of western because it's exotic and gives them lots of nice soundbites for facebook, not everyone who's into it. Obviously learning more stuff is always good, I intend to look into it myself eventually

No one actually does this and in the end it's no different than those seeking the guidance or learnings of any other philosophy

Does contemporary Eastern philosophy even exist anymore? I've read quite a lot about Indian philosophy and I've been so disappointed. I actually believed that it would give me another, worthwhile viewpoint but no.

Kind of sad when such a large literacy tradition has gone sour desu.

Personally, my favorite is a balance between Buddhism and the Greeks, but I also love object-oriented ontology as well. I'll read other philosophy even if I don't agree with it.

You know I tried to get into some Indian Philosophy and Hinduism but I just couldn't. At least with Hinduism it was fun at first but overwhelming and then it just fell flat for me.

Indian philosophy seems to be synonymous with Dharmic religious philosophy. I mean Western philosophy has been heavily influenced by Christianity but it also has lots of influences from Greco-Roman, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. Western philosophy actually has lots of Oriental legacy but it has still evolved into something better. Actually the history of Western philosophy makes the "Exotic Eastern" thing kind of ridiculous.

Indian philosophy on the other hand has never truly accepted outside influences or viewpoints. Same goes with the Chinese philosophy. Basically they've stagnated as far as I know.

>why do westerners today keep on seeking recourse to eastern "philosophy" and religion to alleviate their spirituality bankruptcy but proceed to ignore the massive literature made on the topic by the west? i find it really weird and almost counter-intuitive.
Why? It seems obvious to me. If you don't like
living in your neighborhood would you look for a new house next door?

They totally do though. I know several people who speak almost entirely in pseudo-Deepak Chopra gibberish and walk around in bindis who are dumb as posts but good at generating enough wind to convince each other they're 'spiritual'. Again that's not a knock against eastern philosophy or people who study it, just annoying middle-class hippies

It's either because people are xenophiliacs and are infatuated with everything that is not in their own tradition and culture, or it's because of the Death of God.

Either way, it's not something we can do anything about.

im sure most people do

but most of them aren't even fully aware of the tradition. they just hear the names and never try to grasp them, perhaps as nothing catches their attention, but do not hesitate to do the opposite for the east. they just "move out", so to speak

Maybe because current Western politics consists of "Fuck the West!"

>im sure most people do
Really? Do you do everything based on ease of understanding? Do you never take the challenging road? Do you never do anything nonsensical just for the sake of wanting to or wanting to overcome something that someone else told you that you couldn't or something that you thought you couldn't? What's pragmatic about you posting here? Is everything you do in your daily life entirely pragmatic? Absolutely not.

Because western philosophy is infected with christianity, and to the average american that brings up images of the Westboro baptist church/priests fucking young boys

Uhm no...

>>>/not an argument/

evidence?

Hinduism is the oldest religion and it lines up pretty well with science. CERN has a dancing Shiva statue right outside their complex.

i never said anything about people doing everything with ease of understanding and pragmatism in mind. perhaps i should have that much more explicit. dont push it too far as i didnt

Hold on, let me go to breitbart and find something for you real fast!

Find the nearest feminist channel spouting about our terrible rape culture and how we need to be more like the progressive Islamic cultures.

Fair enough. I guess I was just trying to point out that we all do things and take up interests that may be nonsensical to others who don't share the same interests.

...

Why even bother to read this shitty ancient literature made up by morons when you get all the good themes in cartoons like Caillou. Has all the good themes without the retarded bullshit about the sun being a burning wheel and other useless shit Greeks believed in

>I'm too scared of opposing viewpoints in a thread about philosophy

Ever think your behavior right here is why Westerners are looking away from "Western philosophy"? The West itself has lost all interest in open discourse. Why should it trust itself when its ideas somehow led here?

You're not discussing philosophy. You're trying to turn this into a discussion on politics using bullshit fallacies and non-arguments.

gaslighting

**German politics

speak for yourself, Hans

>implying that the greeks didn't do the same
bitch ass nigga

Every one has their reasons to look for spiritual guidance in certain places, I just don't think is that wierd that westerns turn their heads to eastern ideas, and desu most of them just look at the westernized version of eastern philosophies.

perhaps with mathematics and with the near east rather than the far east but to claim that greek philosophy is influenced by eastern philosophy (as in the far east) strikes me as some 21st century historical revisionist claim, like those who claim plato came upon the old testament on his trip(s) to egypt and drew all of his knowledge there