The geography of thinking.

Full Abstract

People in different cultures are taught to think differently. How we gather information, process, rationalise, justify and communicate our ideas is culturally determined. Europe is divided between the pragmatic, inductive thinking of North Sea cultures and the rationalist thinking of the rest of the continent. Westerners and Asians have different mental skills and capacities deriving from the nature of written and spoken language, the relative importance of learning by rote or investigation and the social environment. Western children are expected to ask questions and test ideas for themselves, while in Asia it is unacceptable to question anyone senior in age or authority, including teachers. Westerners base thinking on reason; Asians base thinking on harmony. Whenever people of different cultures work together, different ways of thinking create barriers to understanding and communication. This applies to many spheres of work, including the medical profession.

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Author information

Author/s: Mole, John (J);

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Clinical medicine (London, England) (Clin Med), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2002 Jul-Aug; vol 2 (issue 4) : pp 343-5

Dates: Created 2002/08/27; Completed 2003/01/17; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12195863, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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