The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett (2003)

The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently . . . and Why by Richard E. Nisbett (2003) has an interesting thesis - that people from the West have a very different worldview than people from East Asia due to their very different cultural influences.

For the West, the main cultural influence would be Ancient Greece and "analytic" philosophers like Aristotle. This analytic view says that items are discrete and separated from the world around them (think atoms and molecules), and all of these items can be categorized into specific lists. East Asians, though, trace their culture back to Ancient China and philosophers who espoused a "holistic" outlook. This philosophy sees the relationships among items and says there is an "invisible echo" of influence radiating throughout the world. 

Cover image: Richard Nisbett U. of Mich. personal page,
www-personal.umich.edu/~nisbett

The Western worldview stems from the Greeks, specifically their notion of personal "agency." Nisbett describes this as "the sense that they were in charge of their own lives and free to act as they chose." The worldview for Asians, however, comes from Confucianism (with influences from Taoism and Buddhism) and its focus on "harmony." For East Asians, Nisbett claims, harmony means being "first and foremost a member of a collective, or rather of several collectives - the clan, the village, and especially the family." In essence, the Greeks gave their descendants a sense of individuality and the Chinese gave their descendants a sense of collective unity.

Nisbett shows how these differences of outlook affect so much of how the East and West perceive the world - from the way children are raised, to business relationships, to international relations. Some of what the author claims is well-known, whether through anecdotal stories or personal experience, but he does an excellent job of finding the roots of different traits.

Nisbett's writing gracefully skirts the line between philosophical/scientific treatise and lay person-accessible nonfiction. To support his claims, Nisbett weaves personal anecdotes and scientific findings into the narrative. Perhaps due to his academic background, there is a lot of evidence provided for different aspects of his claims, to the point you want to say "we get it, move on." The book reads quickly, though, and provides a great deal of interesting concepts.