9e.xps Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 15 (10): 1396-1400, 2013 ISSN 1990-9233 © IDOSI Publications, 2013 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.15.10.11615 Corresponding Author: Kortunov, Russian State University of Tourism and Service, p. Cherkizovo, Main, 99, Moscow Region, Russia. 1396 Russian World View: Using the Cultural Experience of the East and the West Vadim Kortunov and Alexander Fedulin Russian State University of Tourism and Service, p. Cherkizovo, Main, 99, Moscow Region, Russia Abstract: The author reflects on the prospects of the use of cultural experience of the East and the West in the outlook of citizens of modern Russia. The juxtaposition of the two types of culture is based on the fact that they determine man's place in the world and human origins in different ways. The Eastern tradition has overcome anthropomorphism inherent in the Western worldview. Man is seen as part of nature. Western culture is characterized by rationalism and individualism in a relationship with the world. A different type of thinking is cultivated by Eastern culture where non-rationalistic mechanisms of cognition dominate. Personality subordinates its interests to common interests. The author concludes that economism inherent in the Western world view has become all-pervasive in a modern life. This leads to tragic consequences, the growth of spiritual impoverishment, the alienation of people from each other and consumerism. That is why Russia needs a critical approach to Western tradition. The advantage of oriental culture according to the author is its role of incentive for personal self-improvement, besides it suggests a reverent relation to the national culture, nature and human. But this way is also unacceptable to Russia because of our inherent distinctive traditions and social experience. Russian philosophy of XIX - early XX centuries has absorbed all the best from the spiritual development of the West and the East. The author is confident that the policy of Russia in XXI century will be based on the world view that combined the best experience of two cultures. Key words: Philosophical and cultural concept Socio-cultural type West East Anthropocentrism Rationalism Irrational and mystical approach Cosmocentric views Extrovert type of culture Introvert type of culture The idea of reincarnation The non-rational mechanisms of cognition Empathy Passive contemplation Rational and economic way of thinking Total economism Non-rational view of the world Universal and organistic (holistic) thinking INTRODUCTION Carl Gustav Jung, studying the world view of the The division of the world into East and West, of centers of culture may be considered in terms of course, is conditional and the least actual in terms of extroversion and introversion. Extrovert type of culture geography. This, first of all, has the philosophical and and human means "turning outside" and is aimed at cultural nature and represents two fundamentally different transforming the world; introvert type, in contrast, is worldviews and ways of cultural development. The basis turned inwards. It is difficult to disagree with Jung: for this division was largely the opposing paradigm indeed, for centuries we have seen active and energetic underlying the West European and East Asian cultures. character of the West, seeking to subjugate the world and In its classic form the generalized socio-cultural type of to impose its own "rules of the game." In the East, the the West was formed in the era of Modern times and was dominating principle is prohibition of a hierarchy of life expressed in the global ideological orientations to strict elements: everything in the world is of equal worth and is anthropocentrism and rationalism. The standard of the one and indivisible space. When an eastern person is eastern type of culture may be Ancient India (in particular, facing the contradictions between the self and the world Buddhist religious and philosophical system very around him, he is guided by the rule "change yourself." common in the East), which managed to formulate the The trend to a different perception of the world and cosmocentric views and irrational and mystical approach to the definition of man's place in the system of being was to man, society, nature and the cosmos. formed in as far back as in ancient times and may be East and the West, came to the conclusion that these two Middle-East J. Sci. Res., 15 (10): 1396-1400, 2013 1397 clearly seen in the mythological consciousness of Two ways of thinking are two cultures, in many ways Eastern culture and the ancient world, which can be the polar opposite. Russia, however, according to regarded as a forefather of modern Western civilization. Slavophiles, is no stranger either to the West or to the Whereas the Vedic tradition rather quickly overcame the East and therefore is able to accumulate all that is anthropomorphic ideas and personification of God, in valuable in these two so dissimilar civilizations. Hence, the ancient culture both became the foundation of the Slavophiles concluded about a special place of Russia in world picture. While the Eastern world used complex historical process and its special way of socio-political transcendent concepts solving the question of the development. relationship between space and the individual soul, the Analyzing the contemporary spiritual life, we can say ancient world created a pantheon of gods, like two peas that today, the political, legal and interpersonal relations in a pod, similar to humans. It is appropriate to remember are based on a comprehensive implementation of the the words of Voltaire: "God created man in his image and rational and economic way of thinking. But, strictly likeness and the man paid him the same." speaking, the so-called "economic thinking" has already The man in the eastern outlook has always remained gained the upper hand not only in politics, but also at all a part of nature which is proved by the idea of levels of the spiritual life of mankind. According to the reincarnation. The myths of the origin of man in the non- principle of mutual benefit the states implement their European countries emphasize the idea that people have foreign and domestic policies. Countries of the former nothing that would allow them to rise above nature, or to Union focus on the priority of economic interest. Even in consider themselves as superior value. Moreover, for the sphere of interpersonal relationships this principle non-European mythology even some human detraction is from the category of necessity is steadily turning into a typical: according to Egyptian mythology a man is born dominating one. By itself, economic thinking, of course, from the tears of Ra; in the ancient Indian version he is not something sinful. On the contrary, as a result of arises from the remains of a dead human body of titan centuries-old practice, it is the greatest product of the Purusha; and the Chinese mythology suggests that man rationalistic mind and as a regulator of social relations, of evolved from vermin crawling over the body of the dead course, carries a tremendous constructive charge. The god Pangu. The ancient Greeks proclaimed that man is the trouble is not that economism has entrenched in our result of purposeful activity of the gods and arose, neither minds. The trouble is that economism having penetrated more nor less, from the ashes of the titans. in our consciousness has become total. In theory, the As far back as in the first half of the XIX century economic way of thinking is just one of the ways of Chaadayev and, after him, theorists of Slavophilism saw thinking in general and, therefore, is nothing more than a and theoretically thought over the fact that the manifestation of the "abstract principles". And any civilizations of East and West perceive and learn the abstract principle, raised to the absolute, because of its world in different ways. Since the era of Modern times, hypertrophy is inevitably doomed to self-denial. In Western civilization has been built on the principles of practice, such a self-negation is observed even today and rationalism, which leads to individualistic bias in the it becomes quite clear that the civilization of the XXI questions of relationship between man and the world century will either exist on different foundations, or will [1, 2 and 3]. Hence there is the peculiar hierarchy of not exist at all. values, where the supreme is the individual’s being. The history of the twentieth century has taught Hence there is the dynamic and agile character of Western mankind a vivid and tragic lesson: as long as the mind is society that allowed achieving unprecedented success in based on the principles of absolute rationalism, science, technology and production. comprehension and creation of an essential part of the In the East, non-rational mechanisms of cognition spiritual life and hence, the main representative of the and perception of the world prevail. Based on these spiritual principle – man, inevitably falls out of the mechanisms the distinctive oriental culture was created. functions of policy. On the basis of economic rationalism Here individuality is absorbed by the universe and the it is possible to build the economic world or the law- person’s being is focused on the subordination to the governed state, but never – the moral or perfect one. For interests of the whole - the community, the state, the it is already a sphere beyond rational. macrocosm. Eastern worldview rests on other categories: knowledge is often opposed to understanding, learning – The Question Arises: what alternative can be offered by to empathy, active thinking – to passive contemplation the ideas of Slavophiles? Is it to push the thinking on the and reflection – to experience. path of irrationalism and to give the policy to the power of Middle-East J. Sci. Res., 15 (10): 1396-1400, 2013 1398 emotions, intuition and religious mysticism? Is it worth education, the formation of one mind, one calculation, abandoning the proven logic of Western civilization while without any regard to the instinctual (i.e. non-conscious, solving the most important political issues? non-rational - auth.), involuntary impulse of the heart, in Of course, without logic and common sense can be short, a science without religious feelings of love can neither thinking nor any activity at all. Call for achieve the highest degree of development. But having irrationalism as a way of doing politics would be the developed in a selfish direction, constantly meeting the height of folly. It is a different question: you can not build needs of the people, anticipating all their physical desires, a policy on the basis of total rationalism, on the basis of it will deprave the person and the flesh will master the absolute rule of logic and the notorious "common sense." spirit..." [6, p. 70]. Ecology, global security, the "third According to Odoevskiy, "Sooner or later the experience world" countries, in short, the whole mankind are will make people abandon the strange phantom, called sacrificed to calculation (or progress). reason, understanding and so on; people began to notice The economic way of thinking is a kind of the result that as imperfect word, syllogism is nothing but the killing of keen rationalism. And this approach to understanding of thought; one is no longer able to play the toy, which and creation of reality will inevitably lead to ignorance of amused the ancient Sophists and scholastics; and he the whole layers of the spiritual life of people. Since the feels that behind syllogism there is something else that policy has played a huge role in the organization of social neither satisfies the human soul, nor fills it" [4, p. 81]. N. life and can have a direct influence on the spiritual climate Berdyaev asks, "How do we know that the truth can of the society, the right choice of a certain style of always be proved and the lie can always be refuted? political thinking is especially important. Incomplete, Perhaps lie is far more demonstrative than truth. Evidence one-sided analysis of the actual processes and political is one of the temptations which shields us from the truth" program created on its basis is fraught with unpredictable [5, p. 83]. And in fact, fascism had not only its own and often irreversible consequences. Economic ideology, but also its own logic, to some extent very rationalism, like any total rationalism, has never led to the compelling. Stalin's repressions and concentration camps desired objectives, whatever the strong reasoning was were also in their own way a very logical embodiment of behind it. All the time it was like turned inside out, the "scientific" theory of amplification of the class bringing the policy of "common sense" to the obvious struggle. But morality, on the contrary, cannot be absurdity. And there are plenty of such examples in understood solely by means of logic; the rationalized history. ethics inevitably degenerates into law, which, as the The lecture "The Spiritual Crisis of the Russian experience of social and political life shows, is an Intelligentsia" more clearly expressed the reason for imperfect regulator of interpersonal and international degradation of our morals: it is an imitation of the West relations. and adulation. I.A. Ilyin noted: "This crisis has been The Scripture Says: "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt century, when the Jacobin revolution in France produced not steal." Few people take the responsibility to refute some ideological seeds and a great European war with these commandments. But when the rational mind Napoleon scattered them across Europe and Russia; and approaches the issue, it turns out that killing and stealing when the Russian intelligentsia in dialogue with Europe is not only possible, but necessary, if required by some breathed in the air of Rousseau and Voltaire, Byron and higher, well-established target. Similar situation occurs Parny, so that, having accepted their charge, they could with aesthetic values: the rationalized art turns into such then help the left Hegelians, Hugo and Louis Blanc, ugly phenomena as social realism, social art and Lassalle, Marx and Engels. And... we imitated and idolized conceptualism and, ultimately, leads to the collapse of the until one half of us was slaughtered and the other was ideals, taste, to the realm of disharmony. forced to dance around the golden calf of communism..." We must frankly admit that the important moments of [7, p. 42]. people's existence have the meaning beyond rational. And We have witnessed at first glance paradoxical ignoring them today has become the cause of a number of phenomenon. The theory of the communist global crises. After all, a policy based on rational and transformation of society has been developed. On its economic way of thinking, turns not only individuals, but humanistic orientation there is nothing equal. It accepted the entire countries and continents into parasitically a man, his spiritual and physical perfection as the main minded consumers. One and a half centuries ago, Duke objective and at the same time the value. More than one V.F. Odoyevski warned mankind: "Just financial thousand volumes were written in support of this theory brewing for a long time; it was born in the early XIX Middle-East J. Sci. Res., 15 (10): 1396-1400, 2013 1399 and its logical consistency. In practice, however, this At any contradiction between the individual and his theory has cost millions crippled destinies, has led to the complete degradation of both spiritual and material life of the people, to a burst of unprecedented cruelty and to the disappearance of the person. And it seems that the problem is not a logical fault and not the original "depravity" of Marxist ideology. Indeed, the currently observed crisis does not fit into the framework of a particular social system. Even in places where the level of life is high and where everything seems to be done to human well-being, even there the degree of alienation of individuals has become alarming, the number of suicides is increasing, general state of depression and loneliness have become a norm and moral nihilism has reappeared. There is a world process of impoverishment of the spirit. However, it would be wrong to assume that the modern world has been steadily moving towards its collapse and it is absolutely inappropriate to fill the historical process with eschatological content. Western civilization is doomed only so far as it is a purely economic civilization. Structure of the Russian soul, according to N. Berdyaev, "contains the polar poles and holds in the middle with difficulty" [8, p. 108]. He denied the Russian people of the ability to think rationally, talked about the sharp antipathy of Russian spiritual type to formalism and legal approach in culture, to authority in religious life, to rational basis in thinking, to the predominance of external organization over internal organic life. That is why Western culture is alien to the Russian people. But who said that the Western way of development is the only possible way? We have just had a look at the West and now it is very time to look at the East. Eastern culture in general is based on the non- rational view of the world and a man of this culture has always been alien to the one-sided rationalization and even more so, economization of thinking as its extreme manifestation. At that we should bear in mind the close unity of material and spiritual sides of the human psyche. In this context, the following statements of Erich Fromm are very true: "If a man was merely a disembodied intelligence, he would have achieved his goal of having at his disposal a vast system of thought. But since it is a unity of mind and body, he must respond to the dichotomy of existence, not only by thought, but by the whole process of life, feelings and actions. Therefore, each satisfactory orientation system includes not only intellectual elements, but also elements of the senses and perception, which are shown in relation to the object of devotion" [9, p. 482]. environment, eastern philosophy gave unequivocal advice: change yourself. Such a principle, cultivated for centuries, of course, raised the public's sense of social passivity. But not only passivity. It gave a huge incentive for self-improvement, for a disinterested attitude to nature, society and people. While Western rationalist science was building the capacity of knowledge, Eastern culture has learned to understand the world. While the West was going to the "post-industrial society", sweeping away everything on its way, the East carefully and patiently listened to the existence, trying to understand its meaning at non-rational level. As a result, at appearance of an urgent need to transform the economic structure of society, the East was able, without going through a long and torturous Western way, to achieve fantastic results. It is no accident that the economic breakthrough became possible precisely in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, that is, in the countries with non-traditional outlook. Careful preservation and multiplication of irrational non- economized ways of development of the world has allowed the East to benefit from the development of the world civilization without the horrendous costs, which would be inevitable in the case of a simple duplication of the Western model. Japan, for example, did not set the task to lift its economy at any cost, by any means (as it was in Europe, or, say, as it happens in our country). And in the end, the phenomenal growth of material well-being takes place here on the background of reverential attitude to the national culture, nature and man. The trend towards dehumanization in culture has wonderfully intertwined with the birth of a society of true humanism. However, we should not idealize the eastern world and raise it to the power of unquestionable authority. It is also unacceptable to us as an ideal or a model of potential development of Russia for the simple reason that we have our own unique culture, tradition and finally, the experience of social order. And the ideology of suppression of the individual principle in the name of the whole for a Russian man is a moral death (that is evidenced by all the "Soviet" period of our history.) The phenomenon of the eastern breakthrough in the economy is worth considering not to replace the cult of the West with the cult of the East. The above example is only a clear confirmation of the idea that the Western path of development may have an alternative; that the economization of thought is though straight, but not the best road to a healthy economy; that the non-rational means of the world development have constructive elements; and that, finally, respect for the own culture and Middle-East J. Sci. Res., 15 (10): 1396-1400, 2013 1400 careful study of the foreign experience can sometimes the spiritual development of the West and the East. It prove to be more productive than the mindless copying of combined the rationalism and irrationalism, having created other people's schemes. a global organistic theory based on a real spiritual Knowledge is not only the possession of information experience and distinctive style of thinking of the Russian on the origin, rise and fall of a civilization, but also the people. This way of thinking has not been in demand ability to use it. To know means to own [10]. among modern politics yet. Although perhaps it is what In fact, what can we expect in the future, if we still embodies the thinking of the XXI century. focus on the West and, therefore, continue to economize our thinking? Obviously, in this case, we condemn REFERENCES ourselves to a long and painful road, not escaping the further exacerbation of society; and moral and aesthetic 1. 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