One would think that people from every part of the world may think in similar way. I just came across a very interesting book — The Geography of Thought by Richard Nisbett. This book argues how people from west think very differently from Asian people. I will share my thoughts on this and similar books — I am in the mode of lots of reading — as I find interesting and kind of surprising ideas.
A veryintiguing idea put forward in this book is that Western thinking rests on the assumption that the behavior of objects can be understood using simple rules. Different situations must be categorized so one can select appropriate rules for analysis. In contrast, Asian thinking looks at broad context. They consider that understanding events requires consideration of a host of factors that are inter-related. To quote from the book about Asia thinking:
Formal logic plays little role in problem solving. In fact, the person who is too concerned with logic may be considered immature.
This book is going to be a fun book. Interestingly, however, this book does not consider Indian thinking. I know that the India thinking is close to Asian (Chinese) thinking but is very different. It will be great to compare that also along with these two schools of thought.
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Could you please explain a little bit about the differences between India and Chinese thinking style? Thank you.
Well, I think the way asian people think are almost the same except the culture and the values being followed. Moreover we can argue if asian are smart or non-asian?