Endless reviewed Thinking in Chinese by Jeffrey G. Brown
Review of 'Thinking in Chinese' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
Linguistically this short book is quite naive, apparently blissfully unaware of the Sapir-Whorf philosophy it is espousing, and the incredulous view the academic world takes of that philosophy. Nonetheless, I found this an excellent and profitable read. I don't think my pleasure was purely from a personal perspective.
I read this book as I was preparing for my own several-month trip to China. For me, the real insight of this book was in discussing the fundamental difference in western and eastern ways of reasoning. According to Brown, the Chinese way of thinking is harmonious and about building connections, the same way their writing systems work; rather than breaking things down to an alphabet, they are built up out of ideas that fit together to compose new words and concepts. In medicine as well as science, Western culture analyzes by breaking things into ever-smaller components; Easter culture, says Brown, puts things …
Linguistically this short book is quite naive, apparently blissfully unaware of the Sapir-Whorf philosophy it is espousing, and the incredulous view the academic world takes of that philosophy. Nonetheless, I found this an excellent and profitable read. I don't think my pleasure was purely from a personal perspective.
I read this book as I was preparing for my own several-month trip to China. For me, the real insight of this book was in discussing the fundamental difference in western and eastern ways of reasoning. According to Brown, the Chinese way of thinking is harmonious and about building connections, the same way their writing systems work; rather than breaking things down to an alphabet, they are built up out of ideas that fit together to compose new words and concepts. In medicine as well as science, Western culture analyzes by breaking things into ever-smaller components; Easter culture, says Brown, puts things together and regards their relationships; if an organ is failing and won't respond to treatment, the Oriental approach is to treat the parent-organ of the failing one, and then keep working up the tree of relationships.
After my time in China I still don't feel confident enough to completely certify Jones' view of their philosophy; a lot has changed in the westernization of China since he was there. But I did find his two different ways of looking at things as something I regularly considered in dealing with the people and the language, and something that has effected me significantly as I look for new ways of approaching problems and solving troubles.
If you approach this book expecting scientific rigor or psycholinguistic theory, you will be disappointed. But if you read it prepared for a friendly conversation about some interesting ideas, I hope you will find it as valuable as I did. They are ways of looking at the world that have been very valuable to me in the years since.