Introduction
One of the inherent qualities of human beings, and one which, as far as we know, distinguishes us from animals, is our ability to extrapolate from our sense perception of the world that surrounds us and create abstract concepts which we can use to organize, and manipulate objects and predict future events. One type of abstract concept is numbers. Mathematics is the discipline which deals with numbers. All other abstract concepts fall under the discipline of philosophy.
Philosophy is traditionally divided into east and west. Eastern philosophy being the most cohesive of the two, retaining practices and beliefs that go back hundreds if not thousands of years. Western philosophy has experienced a more volatile existence, in which students and teachers have a more rebellious nature. A student of Buddhism may expand on the Buddhist way, bringing about new practices. Said discipline may evolve in a gradual manner, but still, retain the essence of its ancestral teaching. Zen Buddhism is still Buddhism and Buddhism is still in many ways Hinduism. In the case of Western thought, ideas tend to evolve in a more predatorial manner. From Hegelian dialectics, came about both Fascism and Marxism, two philosophies which are opposite, with completely different world views, who see themselves as the only true redeemers of mankind. Its no wonder that throughout the twentieth century, many of the bloodiest conflicts came about through the absolutist tendencies of both philosophies. In turn, Hegel believed that his “idealism” was also the “truest of the bunch” rejecting Kantian philosophy, a philosophy which defined eighteenth-century Europe. This is not to say that western philosophy is always cannibalistic, many philosophies tend to look back into older knowledge for inspiration. There were, after all, “Neo-Platonists”, in the roman empire. As there are Neo-Platonists today.