中西方自我差异溯源

The Origin of the East-West Differences in Self

摘要: 自我的形成受到时代和社会发展的影响和制约，与不同社会文化结构相联系。中西方自我的差异是近年来文化心理学的热点问题。该文从中西方文明发展进程中追溯中西方自我的差异，探讨了东西方不同的自然经济结构、语言文字、神话传说、世界观、人性论与实践论、生理因素等。研究发现，家庭本位的农耕文化使得中国先民“天人合一”的思想有浓厚的伦理蕴意，作为家庭扩展的古代社会以人伦礼教规范人们的言行，强化了关系取向的自我的同时，也禁锢了个性与创造性。西方文明从工商文化中获得了一种独立自主的自我，在自然环境斗争的过程中，“主客二分”的思维方式赋予了先民个性与理性，以此为基础发展了西方社会的科学技术与法律制度。

Abstract: The formation of self is constrained by the times and social development, and linked to different social and cultural structures. Recently, the difference between Chinese and Western self is a hot issue in cross-cultural psychology. In this article, we tried to illustrate how the East-West differences in the self are originated from the progress of Chinese and Western civilizations, and traced back to two types of philosophical thinking: “unity of heaven and human” and “subject-object dichotomy”. We first discussed factors that could influence people’s self, specifically, the differences in natural economic structure, physiological structure, language and words, myths and legends etc. Then, when it comes to the world view, we discussed different views of human nature and practice. Family-based agricultural culture gives the Chinese people a strong ethical idea, for example, in the ancient China, society, as the extended family, laid a strong foundation for the relationships among people and for the ethics to regulate people’s behaviors. It limited Chinese individuality, personality and creativity. In contrast, Western civilization has gained from the business culture of an autonomous self. They struggled with the natural environment. The way of thinking, “subject-object dichotomy”, nurtures a special personality and intelligence, which is also the basis for the development of science and law system in the West.