The Old Testament mentions the ‘Tower of Babel’ through which a united humanity and its learning spread out as different cultures throughout the world. In reality however, there were two distinguished centers of learning and philosophy in the old world, viz. the Eastern and the Western thought.

While the Western thought sprung majorly from Greek ideals with a strong dash of Abrahamic thought later, the Eastern thought emerged mainly from the Indian and Chinese ideals which influenced the eastern cognition. A must mention here is the Persian thought in the form of Zoroastrianism which is said to influenced early Abrahamic thought itself.

A major difference between the Eastern and Western thought lies in the ideas of renunciation and assertion. While the prior has more emphasis on renunciation, the latter focuses on assertion. A clear example can be seen in the cases of Buddha and Aristotle. Buddha, despite his regal and opulent background, gave up his royal privileges and embarked on an ascetic journey. Aristotle on the other hand, despite coming from a background of spartan scholarship believed that the Greeks have strength and reason and hence have every right to rule the world. He instilled this idea in his pupil Alexander who went on to conquer most of the world known to Greeks back then.

The origin of these instincts can be traced to the geological settings in which these two streams of thought emerged. The Eastern thought emerged in the fertile basins of the Indus, Ganges and the Yangtze rivers, with almost continuous stretch of unhindered resources. Thus, the Eastern cultures developed their faiths and ideals in natural plenitude. And it was this abundance that made them weary enough of the affluence to a point of abdicating it. The Western thought on the other hand, developed in the sufficient but fractured landmass of the Greek peninsula and the semi arid tracts of the Levant in the case of Abrahamism. Thus, the idea of assertion developed from the instinct of securing the available resources in a limited landscape. Another striking difference in their weltanschauung or world view is the importance given to ethics and fair play. The Western ideals are much more result oriented when it comes to accomplishing a task; while the Eastern ones are more process oriented. Hence, ethics have had a dominant role in Eastern thought as compared to its Western counterpart.

One of the roots of this can be traced to the perception of time in Eastern and Western philosophies. While the west views time as a linear progression, the east believes it to be cyclic in nature. Thus, the west believed once an act has been done at a particular time, it moves past you permanently. The east however on the other hand, believes since the wheel of time is moving  continuously you come across a course of action you’ve done more than once in different forms, giving rise to the concept of Karma.

Naturally, the west has moved ahead with their course of actions sans any qualms, unlike the east who were comparatively weighed down by moral conscious on the same path. Hence, the west dominated the global scenario even after a dark age unlike the east which was less ambitious in the same aspect.