The Concept of self in eastern thought and humanist psychology. Essay, 1984

James Low
Written in 1984 and submitted as a  dissertation for The School of Independent Studies, North East London Polytechnic, 1985.
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Extract

The task of understanding a different culture involves a delicate balance between giving empathetic attention to all the details and significances of the cultural forms and attitudes as they function in that society and at the same time keeping a perspective so that a meaning can be extrapolated that has significance for one’s own culture. This is the essential methodological issue in social anthropology and many styles have arisen between extremes of making empty platitudes about universals and minute, self- absorbed descriptions of ethnographic particulars.