浅析美国的个人主义与中国的集体主义Brief Discussion on American Individualism and Chinese Collectivism [2]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-10编辑:刘宝玲点击率:23967
论文字数:26000论文编号:org200904101135203730语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:prisoners of war (POW); American individualism; Chinese collectivisminnovation in science and technologyrule by law战俘美国的个人主义中国的集体主义科技创新法治
tween American culture and Chinese culture. Among them, the most important or fundamental one is on the value orientation: American culture upholds individualism; Chinese culture advocates collectivism. Thus, in the daily life, Americans value freedom, rule by law, individual rights and liberation of self while Chinese think highly of ethic code, moral principles and interpersonal relations. What are the definitions and ways of expression of American individualism and Chinese collectivism? Is Chinese knowledge about American individualism correct?
A. Definition and Explanation of American Individualism
The basis of western culture is Christianity and its core is individualism.
For American individualism, it refers to that individual is the foundation for the existence of collective. Everyone has his own independent personality and free will and others should not work their will upon him except that individual interests endanger public interests. What is more, individualism means two aspects: pursuit of individual interests and bearing responsibility of your own at the same time. American represents them in five rooted convictions in their daily life: everyone is able to save himself; individual rights cannot be deprived in any way; the power of human is unlimited; Americans believe in survival of the fittest; Americans seek to show individuality.
Individualism, which is rooted in the earliest American ideology: Puritanism, is the core of American values. And after historical changes of ages, it has infiltrated into all the fields of American society.
The birth of Puritanism is the achievement of the Reformation in Europe, which shattered the old rigid Christianity and liberated the individual to a large degree. As the result of such reformation, Puritanism surely inherited the achievement. It was represented in two aspects: to set the individual free from the strict discipline of Roman church and to set the individual free from the strict ideological control of Roman church.
On September 16, 1620, 102 British puritans rode on a wooden sailing ship “Mayflower”, with the hope that they would win freedom and realize all the dreams in the faraway new continent. It might be for the luck owning to this romantic and beautiful ship’s name that they went ashore in the new continent successfully after sixty-six days, with one dead and one born. In the following days, forty-one adult men from them signed the famous Mayflower Compact 1620, which was simple in content but ushered in a new way of public life. It became an example. That means the public order should be kept by the compact but not compelled by the authority above people. So all the people are living for themselves, but not for somebody or something else and they are the masters of the government. That is the reason why the holy stone in Plymouth is regarded as the first symbol that distinguishes between an American and a British. And in the following years, Americans fight for the liberty in the War of Independence and at last they won the war.
So, the first Americans were aware that all the kinds of government should form only with their permission. And then with the western expansion, American individualism developed a lot and till the age of Emerson, American individualism was greatly perfected.
But another problem might emerge. That is how to deal with the conflict between everyone’s interests when the whole interests in USA and in the world are limited and everyone wants
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