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1、On individualism and collectivismAbstract: The idea of western individualism relies greatly on the geography, society and politics of ancient Greek. Greek is composed of islands and peninsulas scattered along the Aegean Sea, for which it forms open culture different from China that is inland. Like R
2、ick(Perikles, about B.C.495-B.C.429) delivered a distinguished speech in B.C.431 and pointed out that” The reason why our system is called democracy is that politics control lies in all the cities but not only the minority.” People call every man is the maser of his own life. This kind of ideology i
3、ndicating democracy and pursuing individual thought is the soul of western individualism.Key words: individualism, collectivism, society, economic.1 IntroductionFrom the perspective of the correlation and function of culture and control to inspect the foundational spirit and quality, we can find tha
4、t western culture (no matter either it is Britain and American culture or transmits the culture of counties of continental Europe.) can be boiled down to individualist culture. And Chinese culture and the culture of East Asia culture immersed by the essence of Confucian culture is communitarians cul
5、ture. 2 Research backgroundIn the modern times, the western world extends rapidly in the market economic order and takes the lead to enter modern society pushed by the technological revolution. Compared with western world, with thousands of years of continuous culture tradition, Chinas modern times
6、and modern is still trailing badly in science revolution, economic development, market spread and the improvement of the living standard of the people. There are four basic components, political democratization, economic commercialize, value diversification and social humanity. Modern times and mode
7、rn of China and western world are remarkably different, which prompt Chinese intellectuals, academic and the Sinology abroad introspect continuously about the soul of Chinese traditional culture. According to these, I will share my shallow understanding of collectivism and individualism.一，Individual
8、ism Individualism indicates the extent to which a society is a loosely knit social framework in which people are supposed to take care of only of themselves and their immediate families. There is more emphasis on “I” than on “we”. According to Hofstedes study of IBM, the U.S. ranked number 1 in indi
9、vidualism worldwide, followed by Australian, Great Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. However, obviously Chinese do have difficulty in understanding the concept of individualism. No matter consciously or unconsciously, Chinese reckon individualism equals to “selfishness” or “self-centeredness”, ev
10、en disdain to comprehend this concept. As this misunderstanding lasts for years, gradually we Chinese is used to preconception and the we ignore the fact, individualism does not come into being from the western culture until modern times, but “selfishness” or “self-centeredness” have been being sinc
11、e the age of human memory. In western societies, individualism is to highlight the individuality and personal quality, which emphasize the personal independence and approve personal action freedom and freedom of belief. The idea of western individualism relies greatly on the geography, society and p
12、olitics of ancient Greek. Greek is composed of islands and peninsulas scattered along the Aegean Sea, for which it forms open culture different from China that is inland. Like Rick(Perikles, about B.C.495-B.C.429) delivered a distinguished speech in B.C.431 and pointed out that” The reason why our s
13、ystem is called democracy is that politics control lies in all the cities but not only the minority.” People call every man is the maser of his own life. This kind of ideology indicating democracy and pursuing individual thought is the soul of western individualism. One of the most attractive charac
14、ters of most American people is their self-reliance, which is generally considered as the basic of individual freedom, another essential character of individualism of America. Children in the United States, as long as they are 18-year old, have to earn their daily bread by themselves, while senior c
15、itizens are also quite used to living alone instead of sharing the same ceiling with children. No matter that we may hear people always say:” Thanks, but I can manage it throughout the country in the America.” Much unlike the Europeans thoughts on freedomjust as what Tocqueville went after, an entir
16、e free without any strings attachedthe equivalent in America seems to be more reasonable, not meaning that one can do anything at will, but entitling people the right to education, to work, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, etc. the basi
17、s of these rights are “Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, declared by The Declaration of Independence. Of course, all of these freedoms and rights should be under the control of the States legal system.二，CollectivismCollectivism emphasizes common interests, conformity, cooperation and inte
18、rdependence. It indicates a tight social framework in which people distinguish between out-groups and expect their in-group to look after them. In-group includes your immediate family, your extended family, your relatives, your acquaintance, your friends, your classmates, your colleagues etc, people
19、 you regard as part of your group, those who are close to you, who have closer relation with you. Out-group includes refers to people who are basically strangers, who only have business relationships with you, who are not close to you.待添加的隐藏文字内容2 The superiority of collectivism is confined to whethe
20、r the leaderships possess collectivism, the unselfish behavior and common value.Its advantage of collectivism is sharp when the disaster occurs. For example, massive flood happening, the leaders make full advantage of the rights endowed by it. It is a tremendous spiritual power and moral support. No
21、t only can to develop and expand and breed the spirit of collectivism promote cultural and ideological progress, but also boost the corporeal civilization construction and political civilization construction, and strengthen integrated nation power. All in all, these two kinds are extremely different but they both have their own tradition and soul. We should take an objective view of them.References:1 佚名.A Study on American IndividualismZ.河北科技大学，2002：12-15.2 汪晓丹. 西方人权运动中的个人主义J.2005：06-15.3 崔雪茹.集体主义分析J.豆瓣，2006: 10-31.4 霍勒曼.集体主义中国和个人主义美国N.纽约时报，2007：12-25.
