Why is eastern philosophy so inferior to western philosophy?

Why is eastern philosophy so inferior to western philosophy?
It comes off as outright juvenile in comparison, rather than critical, debated ideas created in a furnace of debate among scholars, they seem to entirely stem from a few learned men
And rather than true philosophical thesis they are more often spiritualist charlatanism or a collection of scatterbrained proverbs and wisdoms. Why is this? Was the culture of philosophy profoundly different in the east? Or were we simply lucky to have produced better scholars by pure coincidence?

Other urls found in this thread:

plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/early-modern-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-metaphysics/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-epistemology/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

eastern philosophy is the guy who goes to the show to just sit back and experience it

western philosophy is the critic who goes there to write about it

that's it

Eastern philosophy works fine for more collectivist societies.

Eastern philosophy isn't philosophy at all. There's no real process of truth seeking, so it's really more that someone wrote something, and if enough people thought it sounded good and accepted it, despite no logical or rhetorical reasoning to substantiate it, it would become an eastern "philosophy". It's all sophistry, more focused on showboating and sounding profound than it is on creating understanding

plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/early-modern-india/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-metaphysics/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-epistemology/

This board is fucking garbage

Why are all these links empty?

Because Eastern philosophy is the ravings and rantings by autistic non-human Chinks, Indians and Arabs who use drugs and try to impose their soul-less belief systems onto others.

Western philosophy deals with higher concepts that only white people understand such as compassion, self control, holiness, righteousness, empathy, love and mercy.

This isn't /pol/ take your shit stirring over there

They work for me. Try not using a shitty browser I guess.

>Eastern philosophy isn't philosophy at all, it's all sophistry
I disagree with this, its obviously a mode of philosophy distinct to its western counterpart in some ways and similar in other ways. There is for example the Nyaya school of hinduism and the chinese 'school of names'. Madhyamaka buddhism also has some great philosophy in it. I wouldn't necessarily discard all of it because there are good gems of philosophy among the mud but I do agree with you and OP insofar as eastern philosophy cannot detached itself from its religious/mystical roots the way the west can.

Most of the philosophies I mentioned here are very niche in the eastern world in fact some of them like the school of names have been lost to time. It would seem that the priority of the east, that is spiritual transcendence of some sort, is not the same as the priority of the west (knowledge in itself). I wouldn't call it 'inferior' but it is definitely not in the interest of what we mean by 'Philosophy' with a capital p.

Awhile back a philosophy professor (Jay Garfield) specializing in tibetan buddhism sparked controversy by suggesting that universities should rename 'philosophy' to 'european philosophy' because it isn't inclusive to other types of philosophy. Obviously it was a categorical point but he ultimately implied that we should give equal weight to both eastern and western philosophy and view them as equally significant to the interest of humanity which I fully DISAGREE with.

I would compare it to the issues faced of innovation. The east had early successes that functioned well enough to last a while, and promoted an atmosphere of tradition. The west was stuck in a series of never ending conflicts and wars, whereas the east drifted from prosperity to collapse, then back to prosperity.
If it isn't broken, don't fix it; this motto keeps things going but may introduce stagnation over time.
Compare Taoism and Confucianism to the works of Ancient Greece and Rome.

Here's your (You)

this whole thread including (especially) the OP is shit stirring. What OP is saying has no basis

Eastern 'philosophy' is not philosophy but metaphysics, which is infinitely superior to western philosophy. Eastern metaphysics deals with the fundamental nature of reality, describes and explains states that can be directly experienced and validated by people and also provides a Tradition of wisdom that guides the entire culture.

Western philosophy is the scribblings of men who have no wisdom Tradition and instead have to scramble around on all fours in the dark searching for it. The very term philosophy implies sophistry, experimental thought and guesswork which is an accurate description of most western philosophy. Easterners have Traditions which teach the heights of wisdom that stem from divine and primordial origins while westerners have no inherited teachings and are lost to the whims of whoever dominates the conversation in any given era. The best western philosophers seem like children compared to the sophistication and subtleties of the great eastern texts.

this, but western philosophy has produced some good results. formal logic and analytic philosophy can't really be argued with, though their utility in philosophy is debatable, and they don't seek the same goals as Eastern Philosophy in general.

>literally invented modern economics allowing countries to get rich very quick

>implying wealth is more important than wisdom or maintaining a wholesome traditional culture
>literally proving my point

>Western civilization has been and still is undergoing a near complete spiritual, cultural, moral and metaphysical decay but it's okay because of our GDP!

It's thanks to his work that we're not living in poverty

Wait. Prove him wrong then send him away

Also, i will weigh in.

Eastern philosophy never quite separated from religion the way the west has. Not that this is bad or good but its a turn off for westerners who want secular approach or Christian approach.

That being said, in Indian Buddhism there are some ancient but quite impressive works that are incredibly similar to Kant despite the two being thousand years and miles apart.

The other problem is eastern philosophy requires knowledge of old writing and language which has a very high barrier of entry. In addition western philosophy, IMO also has a high barrier of entry as I wouldn't consider anyone not versed in symbolic logic and a solid grasp of Plato to Plantinga really capable of having a worthwhile critique.

Eastern philosophy has thus found a better home in religious studies departments and not philosophy and there is little to no serious cross training Or discourse between the two.

>Eastern philosophy never quite separated from religion the way the west has.
>its a turn off for westerners who want the Christian approach
??

So what?

This.

Because enlightenment. And since enlightenment thought is also linked with the classical western philosophy, it gains more weight retroactively.

But you would judge differently if you'd live in some other era.

bullshit

Western philosophy developed rapidly because of the Socratic method, in which there is a dialogue between teacher and student. This process of arriving at knowledge through questioning meant that new ideas could easily enter the western canon and replace philosophically weak theories without causing much of a schism in terms of philosophical thought.

On the other hand, the eastern mode of thought has much less room for questioning your teachers or indeed elders in general. An eastern philosophical education involves receiving the wisdom of a master, and your measure of success in that education is in how closely your understanding of philosophy mirrors that of the master. There is very little room for questioning your teacher, and thus even bad ideas tend to pass largely unchanged from generation to generation. Change, when it did happen, was only really possible through the founding of an entirely new school of thought.

>Eastern 'philosophy' is not philosophy but metaphysics,
exactly, this is why it's completely uselesss

>t. brainlet who has never read Guenon

I don't mean metaphysics in the western philosophy sense of haphazardly trying to deacribe being, but in the true sense of the term, which has to do with the truth of ultimate reality. This informs and guides entire civilizations which is so much more important than western philosophy that philosophy is hardly even worth mentioning.

Being without a Tradition that instills and preserves Metaphysical knowledge, the West has become lost which is why it's in the crisis it's in right now. Before you continue defending western philosophy for purely sentimental reasons, stop and ask yourself 'if western philosophy is so great, than why did Western civilization descend into such a shitshow?'

>'if western philosophy is so great, than why did Western civilization descend into such a shitshow?'
The west had the enlightenment, the east has UNENDING SAVAGERY

We'll see how useless it is when one of my lightning bolts comes for your ass kiddo

You straight just made that up

>western philosophy deals with higher concepts that only white people understand
>such as
>uhhhh
>...judeochristian morality and ethics

ok

>which has to do with the truth of ultimate reality
What?

They didn't start with the Greeks.

The Greeks started with the Indians.

if greeks and southern italians are white then the people hugging the coast of the levant before it got BROWN'D by the muslims ,are white too

I think everyone in this thread had it backwards. Lots of western philosophy looks completely lost to me..some of its great no doubt...some eastern philosophy is kind of crap, but I think the way they approach the mind something western philosophy is sorely lacking. If you're a philosopher and you're an angsty, isolated mess, you're doing something wrong.