Customer Reviews

Meeting of East and West: An Inquiry Concerning World Understanding

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of those truly great books that slaps your mind awake, offering you a completely new world view and interpretation of intellectual history. This book is partially responsible for my choice to study for a PhD in philosophy.It was a life-changer for me and is especially relevant now with its novel, and I believe, accurate understanding of Mexican culture. A monumental work!

Though writing during and after World War II, Northrop's analysis of American and world political and social thought is spot on and more applicable today, with the Health Reform debate, than ever. This book has opened my eyes to the underlying philosophical differences and similarities between people, and the need to understand said philosophies in order to mitigate conflict.

For what it's worth, this book, which I have not read, was a key influence on Robert M Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. This is from his 1995 paper on "Subjects, Objects, Data and Values":

"For those who would like more information about this "Conceptually Unknown" than I can give today there is a valuable book called Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel from which I derived the title for my own first book. When the Zen Archer refers to an "it" that shoots the arrow he is referring to what I mean by Dynamic Quality. For those who prefer to stay more within the confines of Western analytical thought there is a book by Prof. F.S.C. Northrop of Yale University called The Meeting of East and West. It is the book that really started me on this philosophic quest that has now lasted 47 years."