Mind Map

Written by Richard Nisbett, and translated by Choi In-chol

248 pages, 12,900 won, published by Kimyoung-sa

This book deals thoroughly with the differences between the procedures of thinking in eastern and western minds. If the expression “orients” itself on the writings of Edward W. Said, “Orientalism” refers only to the society of Islamic countries in Mid-eastern Asia, while the Asia written about in this book refers to far-eastern countries such as Korea, China, and Japan, which adopted Chinese characters and Confucianism in forming their unique cultures. On the standpoint of relative cultural comparisons and cultural psychologies, it considers the differences that transpire in the minds of Confucius and Aristotle’s descendents.

According to the author, though western people regard the individual concept of the object as of great importance, and prefer categorization and formal logic, eastern people grasp objects based on the interdependence relations of those objects. In addition, although western people directly describe their characteristics and behaviors when they express themselves to the others, eastern people center on their roles and relationships in their houses and workplaces.

Though Chinese people assume that cases of murder would have occurred if situations were different, Americans think that under any conditions, a murderer with the disposition to commit such a crime would commit that crime regardless of circumstances. The author basically thinks that this comparison does not only show the simple differences between the two cultures, but also categorically proves the fundamental differences of thinking procedure and its outcomes.

Though it deals with a traditional subject, the comparison of western and eastern cultures, his way of approach to the topic and method of explanation are very fresh. In particular, his method of correcting the conservative viewpoint that the way of thinking does not have much to do with its mother culture is very suggestive.

Normally, we regard the Cogito as the most common standard of human thought based on the homogeneity of biological origins. Like the indications of the old scientists, we utilize the expression, “Human” without any classification of culture and language.

But the author positively substantiates that the way thinking can be varied in accordance with relevant cultures, and the way cultural differences can be reflected as fundamental principles, which designate ways of thinking and their outcomes. Though it can be heard as a repetition of natural story, the assertion about cultural relativity proposes a serious problem towards the tacit premise of the science of recognition and Darwinian psychology.

The other special feature of this book is the fact that it does not use restraint or evade the famous dichotomy of eastern and western spheres. Instead, this book raises the range of mutual understandings of eastern and western cultures by materializing the differences that are found between the two different spheres. The understandings of both cultures are the processes of sharing cultural differences, and the cultural differences should be developed along the entire range of mutual supplements without any formality of exclusion, such as dichotomy.

On how to read this book, the word dreamt up by Richard Dokins, “Meme,” came up. Meme is the gene of “meaning,” indicating the denominations of “meaning,” which copies and spreads itself.

The author’s work comparing the differences between eastern and western spheres in various fields such as history, psychology, logics, language, and economy, seems like a genetic map of the mind. If our way of thinking was created from the transmission and copying of genes of thinking in cultures of the “Orient,” imitation and mimicry from genes created in some other parts looks very natural.

If culture is regarded as a sort of “reality,” conflicts and confrontation are indispensable. But, by recognizing mimicry and imitation among heterogeneous cultural codes, we can easily find the possibility of amalgamation.

It seems only fitting that it is amid the blooms of spring when we are faced with this book, which deals with the fundamental problems related to culture itself.