At what point do we phase out the phrase “Western” or “Eastern” thought? Do those names means anything anymore, except as referents to historical modes of categorizing philosophy?
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I heard “Western thought” in a TikTok recently, I think, and it struck me as a bit odd because I didn’t really know what they were invoking; it was alluded to as if continuing, in process.
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Immediately legible if e.g. applied to Chinese medicine vs. Western medicine, where each side represents entirely distinct ontologies and methodologies for the same topic.
Not really clear if it's supposed to mean anything at all beyond vague noises outside such contexts.
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And now I’m curious to what extent Chinese medicine is practiced in, say, actually China, vs holistically minded folks in America and elsewhere. Origin = ontology / methodology?
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More of my partner's area than mine, but: integrated into the medical system, extensive use of both.
It was substantially altered to make it palatable to a scientific worldview after the Cultural Revolution.
Before that, huge differences between elite and folk medicine as well.
(Codified) Classical Chinese medicine strongly associated with court physicians, esoteric traditions etc. - very much so an elite medicine.
Some conceptual cornerstones in folk medicine - Yin/Yang, wind, damp, heat - but this would resemble pre-scientific Western medicine more.
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