metablue wrote:I wouldn't interpret being heavily influenced by external shame as lacking a conscience. More like looking at the effects of your actions in the context of your social group.
Couldn't it just be that not shaming your family is an important part of being a good, moral person in some societies.
These are her words, not mine.
She says the reason that Western people confess their sins is that sins are a burden on their conscience, and they need to repent. According to her, the last thing a Japanese person wants to do is confess their sins, because if the evil deed is completely internalized, there is no shame because nobody knows about it, and therefore, there is no problem.
She doesn't say that guilt and shame are two conflicting factors that drive Japanese behavior, she flat out says that Japanese people don't feel guilt. To me, that quite strongly implies that she believes that Japanese people have no moral compass of their own.
Again, I strongly point out that I think this is a stupid point of view, as I don't think that shame and guilt have to be mutually exclusive. Just because shame is more of a factor in Japanese society than in the West (and it is, I don't doubt that) doesn't mean that Japanese people don't also feel guilt for their actions. If they didn't understand the concept of "guilt", they wouldn't have a word for it (やましい). And likewise, we wouldn't have one for "shame".
