Towards an Understanding of the Ways of Thinking among Sri Lankans with Special Reference to Their Historical Consciousness

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to understand the deep structures in the ways of thinking among Sri Lankans. This is mainly inspired by my preoccupations with the historical consciousness of the Sinhala-Buddhist community in Sri Lanka in the last three decades and the deep political changes in the last two decades. I am using the phrase "ways of thinking" following Najime Nakamura's definition in his famous work "The Ways of Thinking of the Eastern Peoples" (University of Hawaii Press, 1974). "The phrase 'ways of thinking' refers to any individual's characteristic features of the thinking habits of the culture to which he belongs [...J 'Ways of thinking' as here used will designate especially ways of thinking about concrete, empirical questions, which may, on many occasions, involve also value judgments and questions of values in ethics, religion, aesthetics, and other such human concerns" (p.5). The outcome of the research will be presented under the following thematic investigations: