Godless Easterners

Question

Is it true that Eastern languages don't seperate the action from the subject?  For instance, in the sentence, "I am walking to the store." ,  the Eastern language would write it and think it:  "Walking-store-I", or  "Store-walking-I."  In other words they see it , and its reflected in their language, and therebye in their minds and hearts, as if  their  I  is embedded in  a process.  Whereas in the West, the I  is seperate from the other elements in the sentence and hence in our minds and hearts.  And if this is true, would this explain why the West sees God as seperate from His creation and the East sees reality in pan/panentheistic terms?  Or do , for instance , the Chinese,  also rigidly seperate the I  from the action.  Also, did the language come first and then the monism(East) or  dualism(West) or did the philosophical feeling come first and then the language reflected that.  Also, I would appreciate another site,  forum,  book, or perhaps another science  that might help me answer these questions.   Thank You .  &lt;removed mod&gt;

Forbes · Accepted Answer

You are first of all assuming that all Eastern languages operate in the same way. Chinese and Japanese are as different from each other as both are different from English. The Indo-Irananian languages of South Asia are in the same language family as English. Other major language families are Dravidian, Austronesian and Malayo-Polynesian.

Secondly, you assume a homogeneity of thought in the East (and indeed in the West) that is not there. Even a cursory study of the many beliefs within Hinduism will show that ideas differ as to whether *** is immanent or transcendent. At least three major Eastern religions (Buddhism, Jainism and Taoism) do not depend on affirming the existence of ***. Nevertheless, it is true that the philosophical forms of Hinduism most known in the west do stress that the universe is a manifestation of ***, rather than a creation separate from him. Equally, the orthodox forms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam clearly distinguish between *** and his creation, although mystics within these religions have had different ideas.

You do raise the very interesting question of whether thought is governed by language. The belief that it is is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as to which see here: http://venus.va.com.au/suggestion/sapir.html and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_Hypothesis and also here: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/whorf.html not to mention here: http://www.angelfire.com/journal/worldtour99/sapirwhorf.html and no doubt in may other places.

Godless Easterners

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