What do you think?
Rate this book
Intimacy or Integrity: Philosophy and Cultural Difference
How can I know something? How can I convince someone of the rightness of my position? How does reality function? What is artistic creativity? What is the role of the state? It is well known that people from various cultures give dissimilar answers to such philosophical questions. After three decades in the cross-cultural study of ideas and values, Thomas Kasulis found that culture influences not only the answers to these questions, but often how one arrives at the answers. In generalizing cultural difference, Kasulis identifies two kinds of orientation: intimacy and integrity. Both determine how we think about relations among people and among things, and each is reasonable, effective, and consistent. Yet the two are so incompatible in their basic assumptions that they cannot successfully engage each other.
Cultural difference extends beyond nations. Cultural identities crystallize in relation to religion, occupation, race, gender, class. Rather than attempt to transcend cultural difference, Kasulis urges a deeper awareness of its roots by moving beyond mere cultural relativism toward a cultural bi-orientationality that will allow us to adapt ourselves to different cultural contexts as the situation demands.
Wonderfully clear and unburdened by jargon, Intimacy or Integrity is accessible to readers from a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. By analyzing the synergy between thought and culture, it increases our understanding of cultural difference and guides us in developing strategies for dealing with orientations different from our own.
Cultural difference extends beyond nations. Cultural identities crystallize in relation to religion, occupation, race, gender, class. Rather than attempt to transcend cultural difference, Kasulis urges a deeper awareness of its roots by moving beyond mere cultural relativism toward a cultural bi-orientationality that will allow us to adapt ourselves to different cultural contexts as the situation demands.
Wonderfully clear and unburdened by jargon, Intimacy or Integrity is accessible to readers from a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. By analyzing the synergy between thought and culture, it increases our understanding of cultural difference and guides us in developing strategies for dealing with orientations different from our own.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
200 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2002
9 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Thomas P. Kasulis
20 books11 followersThomas Kasulis (also published as T.P. Kasulis) is professor of comparative studies and director of the Religious Studies program at Ohio State University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 6, 2014
I took an Eastern Philosophy (elective) at Ohio State and had Dr. Kasulis as my prof. What a kind, patient, and awesome teacher.
February 24, 2024
Intimacy and Integrity by Thomas P. Kasulis is an insightful exploration of Eastern and Western Weltanschauung. Kadulis delves into the rich fabric of cultural identity, epistemology, and aesthetics, and offers a broad canvas to sketch how these diverse orientations shape our interactions with the world and how we conceive knowledge and art in our particular milieu.
There is an opening scene that compares and contrasts child-rearing practices in Japan and the United States. Kasulis argues that there are indeed foundational differences in how the respective world views are ingrained in respective psyches. Japanese children, for instance, being closely attached to their mothers physically, are naturally inclined to observe the world through an intimate perspective from an early age. On the contrary, American children are raised up as independent explorers, consequently inclined to be somewhat individualistic. Kasulis uses this interesting characterization to set the stage for a deep exploration of how different cultures develop distinct modes of making sense of the world.
If human understanding, by definition, is so deeply modulated by cultural milieus, what are the possibilities of cross-cultural understanding? Moreover, is it even possible to compare two cultures when any such comparison would also be from a particular observer's perspective, who in turn will bring along a necessary observer bias? There will indeed be an oversimplification or distortion. The solution is a concept called cultural recursivity, whereby a target culture can be understood through repetitive patterns or orientations, and these orientations are 'intimacy' and 'integrity'. Kasulis presents it as an elaborate framework which on one hand, facilitates a deeper understanding of underlying cultural psyches, and on the other hand, offers a lens to view the social integrations objectively.
The characterization of epistemological and aesthetic domains is particularly illuminating. The psychic orientations of integrity are layered with objectivity, public verifiability, and a correspondence theory of truth. Orientations of intimacy on the other hand go well with personal experience, subjective truth, and the pragmatic theory of knowledge.
This also extends to the realm of art. Cultures and individuals with integrity orientations tend to achieve objective evaluative criteria, often separating the world of value from the world of being. Objects of art, as per this worldview, maintain their material existence but struggle for an artistic foothold without clear, objective standards. The intimacy orientation views art as an extension of the artist's inner being and cultural context. From this perspective, art is not just an object of aesthetic appreciation but a manifestation of the artist's individual and cultural identity. This view hesitates to separate objects of art from their creators, and appreciation and evaluation of art become a question of cultural and personal inquiry rather than the mere application of some universal beauty standards.
Ultimately, Intimacy and Integrity invite us to reconsider our own cultural predispositions. Kasulis tries to further a balanced analysis with obvious personal leanings toward integrity orientation. However, overall the monograph encourages a dialogue between East and West to enrich our collective understanding of the world.
There is an opening scene that compares and contrasts child-rearing practices in Japan and the United States. Kasulis argues that there are indeed foundational differences in how the respective world views are ingrained in respective psyches. Japanese children, for instance, being closely attached to their mothers physically, are naturally inclined to observe the world through an intimate perspective from an early age. On the contrary, American children are raised up as independent explorers, consequently inclined to be somewhat individualistic. Kasulis uses this interesting characterization to set the stage for a deep exploration of how different cultures develop distinct modes of making sense of the world.
If human understanding, by definition, is so deeply modulated by cultural milieus, what are the possibilities of cross-cultural understanding? Moreover, is it even possible to compare two cultures when any such comparison would also be from a particular observer's perspective, who in turn will bring along a necessary observer bias? There will indeed be an oversimplification or distortion. The solution is a concept called cultural recursivity, whereby a target culture can be understood through repetitive patterns or orientations, and these orientations are 'intimacy' and 'integrity'. Kasulis presents it as an elaborate framework which on one hand, facilitates a deeper understanding of underlying cultural psyches, and on the other hand, offers a lens to view the social integrations objectively.
The characterization of epistemological and aesthetic domains is particularly illuminating. The psychic orientations of integrity are layered with objectivity, public verifiability, and a correspondence theory of truth. Orientations of intimacy on the other hand go well with personal experience, subjective truth, and the pragmatic theory of knowledge.
This also extends to the realm of art. Cultures and individuals with integrity orientations tend to achieve objective evaluative criteria, often separating the world of value from the world of being. Objects of art, as per this worldview, maintain their material existence but struggle for an artistic foothold without clear, objective standards. The intimacy orientation views art as an extension of the artist's inner being and cultural context. From this perspective, art is not just an object of aesthetic appreciation but a manifestation of the artist's individual and cultural identity. This view hesitates to separate objects of art from their creators, and appreciation and evaluation of art become a question of cultural and personal inquiry rather than the mere application of some universal beauty standards.
Ultimately, Intimacy and Integrity invite us to reconsider our own cultural predispositions. Kasulis tries to further a balanced analysis with obvious personal leanings toward integrity orientation. However, overall the monograph encourages a dialogue between East and West to enrich our collective understanding of the world.
August 1, 2018
An excellent presentation of how one’s culture influences one’s thought through an in depth exploration of one pair of different cultural traditions.
March 26, 2019
Must read for anybody thinking globally.
September 11, 2021
Thoughtful, well written, and peppered with amusing anecdotes to give a break from contemplating your entire worldview, this is a great book for anyone interested in cultural philosophy.
April 30, 2011
I read this philosophy book in preparation for the class I am teaching this next semester. Interesting, but I can't claim that I understand much philosophy!
December 9, 2014
•
…or, as some have said, context is decisive…and nothing says context like culture…be aware of where you are standing before attempting movement…
•
December 9, 2014
•
…or, as some have said, context is decisive…and nothing says context like culture…be aware of where you are standing before attempting movement…
•
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews