JRP Submission ID#152
Title: Scientific Thinking and Modernity Meet Traditional Culture
Section: Main Article
Submitted: Nov 12, 2008
Size: About 12,000 words (including notes and references)

ABSTRACT:
This paper examines a fundamental challenge in today's world: the
conflict between scientific thinking (i.e., analytic/systematic
thinking)--and its accompanying notion of modernity--and traditional
culture. The global conflicts concerning resources, development, and
governance we see in contemporary times are really all about the
meeting of modernity with tradition. That is, the basic question is
this: Are we moving towards a Western analytical way of thinking and
living, or a different model? The answer may be that the scientific
thinking and traditional culture are irreconcilable, and so a
prediction for the future may be very difficult indeed.

Cultures around the world have pursued different paths. Ostensibly,
countries like the U.S. and Japan have embraced modernity
wholeheartedly while places like Sudan and Afghanistan have not.
Countries which embraced modernity--that is, countries which have
become industrialized and urbanized--have a long history, moreover, of
colonizing countries which remained agrarian and un-urbanized.

But really, the definitions are not so simple. People living in
apparently modern cultures, such as the U.S., often reject scientific
approaches to problems, and operate from traditional, religious, or
other kinds of belief systems. Other cultures, such as the Japanese,
seemingly embrace modernity, but continue to maintain a sublimated
layer of spiritual and mystical thinking.

KEYWORDS: science; culture; history; tradition; modernity

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This situates "research practice" (or what we might call open and
organised inquiry) within the broad social and cultural environments
prevailing around the world. Reviewers familiar with such topics may
kindly respond.

DP
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