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Comparative foundations of Eastern and Western thought

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“East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” (Kipling).

Abstract

Modern science and technology originated in Western Europe within a specific culture, but they have now been adopted and developed by several Eastern countries as well. We analyze the features of Western culture that may explain the rise of modern science with its associated economic development. A comparative analysis of Eastern cultures will then help us evaluate how far could contemporary science be successfully integrated within very different cultures. Without denying the role of social and political institutions, we would like to investigate the influence of Western and Eastern cultural thought patterns on the respective development of Europe and East Asia. In this way, we try to estimate the importance of the cultural framework for the development of science and technology.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank several of our colleagues and the reviewers for their constructive and useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Quebec in Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Daniel Memmi

Authors
  1. Daniel Memmi
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Correspondence to Daniel Memmi.

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Memmi, D. Comparative foundations of Eastern and Western thought. AI & Soc 32, 359–368 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-016-0656-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-016-0656-5

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