by Nia Nymue

Created on: May 12, 2008

Knowledge has been traditionally defined as justified true belief, and while it must be acknowledged that this is a Western concept, for the sake of argument it provides a reliable basis on which to compare the epistemology of Eastern and Western cultures. In fact, the artificial dichotomy of East' and West' could be misleading because there are two great traditions in the Eastern' half the Indian and the Chinese whereas the Western tradition of epistemology and philosophy too has seen many changes. Chinese and Indian thought can be vastly different at times, and in amalgamating these two to form the East' component of this comparison, excessive generalisation may occur. Thus, this argument will focus on the validity of justification and truths believed, with reference to their epistemology, ethical knowledge as well as metaphysics.

Both Eastern and Western cultures have seen attempts to justify knowledge constructed on the basis of authority and revelation. For example, the Upanishads tend to emphasise the content of the vision of the seer more than the means whereby the vision can be justified. For them, it is the experience of the seers that provides the evidence for the truth of the seers. This is understandable because there had no yet been any formal analysis of the criteria of truth and the relation between truth and evidence. The principles of logic and reason had also not yet been worked out formally. For the most part, personal experience of what is claimed is taken as sufficient evidence. Thus, it can be seen that in this particular branch of Indian thought, authority and revelation of the seers are taken to be valid means of justification. Similarly, Mozi of ancient China looked to tian' commonly translated as nature or heaven, but it can also be considered an equivalent of the English word God' to provide the basis for objective moral standards for human behaviour. He also stated that it was not necessary for each and every member of society to understand that nature provides the standards because the natural human characteristic of emulation means that each stratum of society looks to the one above it for moral guidance. It can be seen that by referring to the "natural" human characteristic of emulation, Mozi is also appealing to common knowledge and instinct to justify his views. According to Mozi, it is ultimately the responsibility of the ruler to set an example. This is similar to the Upanishads' view that the seers have direct knowledge of

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