Greek And Chinese Philosophy: A Comparative Analysis

1. Introduction

Philosophy is a fundamental approach towards the human's grasp of nature truth. It manifested people’s attempt to figure out basic principles of cosmos and different interpretations of world. Under the impact of disparate social and cultural background, ancient Greek and Chinese philosophies’ essential characteristics, ideas and methods and the developing directions show distinctions from each other in general, but at the same time there still exists some significant resemblances noteworthy.

2. Important Differences

2.1 Core differences in characteristics

The core differences between the ancient Greek and Chinese philosophy is the contrast of their underlying traits ---the former is rather rational and logical while the latter

Quoting an old saying in Lun Yu to summary, Chinese philosophy seeks “harmony in diversity” (21) but Greek philosophy seeks the “unity in opposites” (21). Ancient Chinese sages never separated people with nature, but advocated the integrity of a whole organic community in which the human and nature interact well and finally integrate together. Based on this idea, they emphasized the theory of mutual connection and contagion among all natures to explain the changes and the essence of things, which is a bit ambiguous. However, Greek philosophers tended to tore things apart or seek for the “contraries”, but at the same time tried to reach the most fundamental, core and common features of all nature and the genuine causes behind changes. Plato’s dualism (Lindberg, 13-15), the four Aristotelian causes, Aristotle’s division of cosmos (celestial and terrestrial) along with the contraries and transforms of qualities (Lindberg, 25-29) all showed this kind of

It is widely believed that the ancient Greek philosophy leaded to the development and growth of the modern science we accept today. Nevertheless most of the ancient Chinese philosophy is taken like a sort of pseudoscience and superstition in contemporary era. In my opinion, this situation is because of their different concentration areas. Greek philosophy has strong passionate in nature knowledge in the whole process. Tracking back to the school of Plato’s time, his “Academy” did not only teach the philosophy but also the Algebra, physics and astronomy (Ryle, 23). But for the Chinese philosophy, owing to the political sensationalism characteristics many of its theories have, it was seen as an important mean of asserting politics domination by many governors, and for a long period of time linked tightly with the agriculture industry and social politics (Ren Zhongping, 2). So under the theories like Symbolic Correlations and Numerology, the predictive function which can provide a seemingly credible guide to people’s life was highly valued, but philosophy’s pure academic significances was despised. Even at today, some product of feudal superstition like almanacs (which provides calendar and taboos) is still an important part of old Chinese people’s