Dividing cultures into the eastern (oriental) and western captures not only their geographical location, but also description of methods and ways of knowing the world, values, basic lifestyle, socio-economic and political structures. In contemporary culture by western there is meants European, American and Australian culture, under the eastern - the culture of the countries of Central, South-East Asia, Middle East, North Africa. West is diverse, while East is even more varied; however, these two "opposite" types of culture can have common inherent features.
The western and eastern cultures differ in development dynamics. Sociodynamics of the Western culture is characterized by waves, tugs, uneven style. The process of transition to a new break-up occurs as outdated value systems, socio-economic and political structures. Eastern civilization to the XIX century was closed, local, traditional, changes slowly, evolutionarily (Pirnajmuddin and Marandi 16). For example, the basic features of Chinese civilization took shape in the III BC - III AC (Han era) and in essence did not change until the XIX century. Today oriental culture is modernized under the influence of the Western experience. In the East, the new does not reject or destroy the old, traditional, and fits into it.
Western tradition emphasizes the active attitude of human to the external world. Human activities are understood as outward-governance on the transformation of objects. Therefore, Western culture is characterized by rapid technological progress, a rapid change in the objective world. Eastern culture is more focused on the human himself, his spiritual perfection. The attitude to the outside world is rather passive. Unlike Western, Eastern culture rather prefers the doctrine of "non-action" in the outside world, withdrawal. Within the framework of the Eastern tradition, an idea about finding nirvana as the true meaning of life, which involves detachment from the outside world, the lack of passion, lust for life. So, if the western development strategy is the habitat change, Eastern strategy is about change of the person.
Within the framework of Eastern and Western cultures, there are different attitudes towards nature. As part of the Western tradition has developed utilitarian, pragmatic, consumer attitude towards nature. In the East, from the wearing of nature it was more contemplative, anxious, and as shown by historical experience – wiser (Beardsley and Smith 115). It was believed that people must coordinate their behavior as much as possible with the natural laws of the cosmos. They should not interfere with natural processes, but must adapt to them, listen, guess the rhythms of nature, live in harmony with it. Eastern art is also distinguished by the closeness to nature. In the East - China and Japan - the first time there was a landscape painting, landscape art, Ikebana - the art of flower arrangement, bouquets. If the European culture has left us a legacy of Michelangelo statue "David" and "The Thinker" by Rodin, the Chinese culture has left us a legacy of misty landscape with a small figure of a man, lost among the vast kingdom of nature (landscapes of Sung).
Eastern and Western cultures are different in understanding of human and his relation to society, the state. The European culture has an understanding of human as an autonomous, independent person endowed with natural rights (data from birth), which should ensure the state. These ideas were formed as far back as ancient culture, but finalized in the Renaissance and Enlightenment (Pirnajmuddin and Marandi 18). In the very concept of human rights and freedoms, there is a state of law in the framework of the Western tradition. Democracy as a form of state appears for the first time in ancient Greece, and then is revived in Europe in the era of bourgeois revolutions.
In contrast to the West, in the East was always emphasized the importance of the interests not of the individual, but the family, community, caste, clan, state, brought up the worship of power. Eastern societies are characterized by a significant role of the state and collectivist traditions. As an example, Confucianism - a state ideology and religion in China. Confucianism focuses on the concepts of duty, reverence, respect to elders, the common good, collective responsibility. Relations in the state have to be built in a large family, in which subordinates should obey to their sovereign. Emperor is the father of the people. The meaning of life is to be composed in a harmonious fusion with nature, living in a large and close-knit family, fellowship, getting to know of the wisdom of the ancients, the performance of rituals.
Eastern and Western cultures have different attitude to the possibilities of the mind. In Western culture, leading, prevailing was a rationalist tendency - to give priority to reason, top management, abstract, logical thinking. It manifested itself in all kinds of culture: science, philosophy, art. For example, in Europe of XVII century, there was a new direction of the art - classicism, which was based on the rationalism of Descartes. Classicism is the art of strict rationalist, it is dominated by consistency, orderliness, proportionality. There is a strict hierarchy of genres of art. The spirit of rationalism was introduced even in nature, there are artificial, geometrized parks (such as Versailles, Peterhof).
The East tends to be more imaginative, associative mind, intuitive knowledge. This explains the traditional attention to the East meditation, self-awareness, self-hypnosis. The main factors considered in art are expression, intuition, insight, enlightenment, the ability to feel the nature, see unusual in the everyday; comprehension of hidden beauty that requires focused, unhurried contemplation. It was believed that an artist should penetrate the object image to the complete merging with it. And then the work of art is created effortlessly, as if by itself, instantly.
Works Cited
Beardsley, Richard K., and Robert J. Smith. Japanese culture: its development and characteristics. Routledge, 2013.
Pirnajmuddin, Hossein, and Seyed Mohammad Marandi. "Childe Harold's Journey to the East and “Authenticity”." International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences 01 (2014): 14-27.
