Moderating Ego in East and South Asia

• Main Authors: Flanagan, Owen, Ivanhoe, Philip J.
• Other Authors: Brown, Kirk Warren, Leary, Mark R.
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2016
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328079.013.2

Different cultures inculcate different views of the self, its boundaries, and its connections to others, to the environment, and to the past and future. This chapter examines two traditions, Buddhism and neo-Confucianism, in which the philosophical views encourage certain habits of the heart and mind that discourage egoism and favor allocentric attitudes. It is an open empirical question whether, how, and in what domains of life these two Asian philosophical traditions in fact contribute to less egoism and more allocentrism in societies that are Buddhist or neo-Confucian. It is a further open and complicated question whether and how we in the North Atlantic can avail ourselves of resources in these two traditions to make ourselves less egoistic and more allocentric.