I'm not sure I agree with the sharp distinction between Western and Eastern thought. At least in Buddhism, I find much rational argument. It's not like they just expect you to believe. That's the fundamental distinction for me: belief (faith) vs evidence. The one you're making is I think not so much a distinction as varying levels of the same thing, like casual rationalism on the one extreme and hair-splitting rationalism on the other.
Having said that, I think I know where you're coming from. In my philosophical posts I'm often trying to express points that are somewhat subtle, and even though I try to simplify them as much as I can, I still get misunderstood by people who I think are often hair-splitters, lack subtlety, and lack the virtue of trying to understand what the other person is saying, which is cardinal in my view if you really want to have a constructive conversation.
The rat burrowed into the ox horn
The key word I think here is "burrowed". Noticing that people "burrow" is the first step. We need to ask why they do it. My feeling is that what they're doing is "digging their heels in", that's what "burrowing" means. In other words, they go into hair-splitting because they refuse to let go of their false belief. The Church did it with epicycles. Another example is the free will vs determinism debate. Philosophers have been at it for years. And now they finally all agree: every action is 100% determined. Science also agrees: your decisions are made before you're aware of them. But has philosophy declared the matter solved? Oh no! Now it's compatibilists vs incompatibilists! That's how someone like Daniel Dennett can believe both that our actions are 100% determined and that we possess free will at the same time! That's basically the refusal of the "free-willer" to concede defeat. Which isn't really defeat at all because we all gain from the truth, but our competitive culture interprets it as defeat.
More cynical minds will say philosophers make their living by arguing, so they have to invent debatable topics in order to keep earning their bread and butter. But I don't think that's the case: there's always new topics to argue about. I do think they literally just dig their heels in. Or, something more subtle: they're afraid that once they've declared a matter solved, they will be ethically obligated to get the word out! Out of the safety of their Ivory Towers! To engage the masses! The riff-raff! The hoi-polloi! Into the mouths of these uneducated wolves! Who don't even know what the word determinism is probably! Once out there they'll see how much all their philosophy is really worth! The world's utter ignorance will just hit them like a panic attack. That puts the fear in them and they invent reasons to keep themselves locked in their debate-rooms.
At any rate, I think the matter is psychological, and the refusal to admit defeat. Let's say a person believes the Earth is 10,000 years old. Or that the Earth is flat. If I debate a flat-earther right now I'm probably gonna lose the argument because he has split-haired his position to the point of saturation, whereas I simply rely on common sense. At some point the flat-earther was confronted with clear evidence that he's wrong, but he decided to burrow. And then kept deciding that. The more he invested - the deeper he dag in - the longer the return journey became. It's easier to dig one inch further than to walk several km back.
Anyway, need to close this cos it's probably longer than your article itself!
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I enjoyed your article! It was a good read. Somehow the Chinese made it more interesting even though I don't understand a word of it!
I don't have much time to reply right now, but I do really appreciate the reply and agree with much of what you said! I also just joined the Steem Deepthink Discord.
👍