Rice farming, Ming dynasty (Wikicommons) Why are East Asians more collectivistic? Why is their approach to thinking more relational and less abstract? They may have been pushed in that direction by the requirements of rice farming. We humans have adapted not only to nature but also to culture—in short, to ourselves and our creations. This is seen in our genetic evolution, which accelerated more than a hundred-fold when hunting and gathering gave way to farming, which led to further changes in our cultural environment:
With abstract thinking, the world is perceived as being composed of discrete entities that exist in their own right.
Advantages:
- Discrete entities can more easily be manipulated, classified, and stored within mental space and later retrieved for further manipulation. As a result, it's easier to generate mental simulations that provide a good picture of past, present, and future realities. In contrast, much more mental space is required for relational simulations, since the relationships between entities are potentially much more numerous than the entities themselves.
Disadvantages:
- "You can't see the forest because of the trees." There is too much emphasis on entities as discrete, essentialized units, when in fact they aren't. In reality, entities are "fuzzy" and often overlap with each other.
The relative advantages of relationalism versus abstractionism (or substantivalism) are discussed in this wiki entry:
"In discussions about space and time, the name relationalism (or relationism) refers to Leibniz's relationist notion of space and time as against Newton's substantivalist views. According to Newton’s substantivalism, space and time are entities in their own right, existing independently of things. Leibniz's relationism, on the other hand, describes space and time as systems of relations that exist between objects. More generally, in physics and philosophy, a relational theory is a framework to understand reality or a physical system in such a way that the positions and other properties of objects are only meaningful relative to other objects. In a relational spacetime theory, space does not exist unless there are objects in it; nor does time exist without events. The relational view proposes that space is contained in objects and that an object represents within itself relationships to other objects. Space can be defined through the relations among the objects that it contains considering their variations through time. This is an alternative to an absolute theory, in which the space exists independently of any objects that can be immersed in it."
This is so fascinating Peter. This research actually explains some differences I've noticed in real life social interactions with people from Western Europe and East Asia. One question that came to my mind though, can you explain the main benefits or downsides between abstract thinking over relational thinking -- or vice versa?
Fascinating article, I thoroughly enjoyed reading through it and it provided some insight that I had never considered before. I'm familiar with the idea of gene-culture coevolution but I've never thought about it in this specific example and how something like rice vs. wheat farming could've contributed to the more conformist nature of East Asians, it is quite an interesting possibility.
With abstract thinking, the world is perceived as being composed of discrete entities that exist in their own right.
Advantages:
- Discrete entities can more easily be manipulated, classified, and stored within mental space and later retrieved for further manipulation. As a result, it's easier to generate mental simulations that provide a good picture of past, present, and future realities. In contrast, much more mental space is required for relational simulations, since the relationships between entities are potentially much more numerous than the entities themselves.
Disadvantages:
- "You can't see the forest because of the trees." There is too much emphasis on entities as discrete, essentialized units, when in fact they aren't. In reality, entities are "fuzzy" and often overlap with each other.
The relative advantages of relationalism versus abstractionism (or substantivalism) are discussed in this wiki entry:
"In discussions about space and time, the name relationalism (or relationism) refers to Leibniz's relationist notion of space and time as against Newton's substantivalist views. According to Newton’s substantivalism, space and time are entities in their own right, existing independently of things. Leibniz's relationism, on the other hand, describes space and time as systems of relations that exist between objects. More generally, in physics and philosophy, a relational theory is a framework to understand reality or a physical system in such a way that the positions and other properties of objects are only meaningful relative to other objects. In a relational spacetime theory, space does not exist unless there are objects in it; nor does time exist without events. The relational view proposes that space is contained in objects and that an object represents within itself relationships to other objects. Space can be defined through the relations among the objects that it contains considering their variations through time. This is an alternative to an absolute theory, in which the space exists independently of any objects that can be immersed in it."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationalism
This is so fascinating Peter. This research actually explains some differences I've noticed in real life social interactions with people from Western Europe and East Asia. One question that came to my mind though, can you explain the main benefits or downsides between abstract thinking over relational thinking -- or vice versa?
Fascinating article, I thoroughly enjoyed reading through it and it provided some insight that I had never considered before. I'm familiar with the idea of gene-culture coevolution but I've never thought about it in this specific example and how something like rice vs. wheat farming could've contributed to the more conformist nature of East Asians, it is quite an interesting possibility.