LISTEN. "Japan is a syncretic culture in which different philosophies and religions meld," writes Julian Baggini in How the World Thinks (192), but Confucian pro-sociality (not anti-individualist conformism) is primus inter pares for its demotion of personal egoism and preferred emphasis on group context, relationships, and the welfare of the whole community.
Syncretism, "the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought," is a five-dollar word for what I usually just call cherry-picking. Be a stoic and a pragmatist, a freedom-loving Spinozist and a free-willing Jamesian, a fatalist and a meliorist, tough and tender by turns... (continues)
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