Intimacy or Integrity: Philosophy and Cultural Differences

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 moral? What is the role of the state? After three decades in the cross-cultural study of ideas and values, Thomas Kasulis has found that culture influences not only the answers to such questions but how we arrive at the answers. In this path-breaking exercise in comparative philosophy, Kasulis looks at cultural difference by identifying two kinds of orientation--intimacy and integrity--that determine how we think about relations among people and among things. Wonderfully clear and unburdened by jargon, Intimacy or Integrity can be read by anyone interested in understanding cultural diversity. Kasulis is a master at providing ordinary human situations that illustrate dramatically his points. His is more than a reflection on existing philosophical tradition; it actually teaches us how to think through orientations different from our own. "Kasulis has done us an immense service in reminding us that philosophy is not 'the view from nowhere' but is rooted in cultural assumptions and that those assumptions influence both what is observed and what is concluded from what is observed.... All in all, an extremely valuable book that should interest a wide audience." --- Robert N. Bellah, professor of sociology emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; coauthor of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society