Analytical thinking prevails in Western culture. People are good at classifying things and arranging them systematically. Encyclopedic works appeared long ago and taxonomy was advanced early. Animals, plants, and objects are clearly divided, subdivided, and further divided according to their similarities, differences, and relationships. If you glance at the title, subtitles, and topic sentences of each paragraph of an article, you instantly know its content. When a speech is made, the audience can easily get the message by following the cohesive connectors signaling time relationships, like “first,” “second,” “next,” and “finally” and so on, and words signaling logical relationships, such as “because,” “however,” “actually,” and “supposing.”

Experimental analysis has long been used as the major method of scientific research. Doctors of Western medicine treat their patients by examining parts of the body through tests and X rays before making a diagnosis. Linear dissection is related to abstraction. Qian Xuesen says, “Abstractive thinking seems to be linear or branch-like.” Westerners are relatively stronger in making use of concepts for logical judgment and reasoning. Abstraction is synonymous with precision and clarity, and that may help to explain why more theoretical works on science and technology have been produced in the West.

好学英文网