I think by extension of the Platonic school of thought Western culture has become deeply ingrained in dichotomous thinking applying such constraints to all areas of life (beyond simple science and logic), whereas Eastern non-dualism supposes all things (existentially) being equal. Neither West or Eastern philosophies do a very good job of describing each others domain space and yet they share many similar concepts. Karma (Theoretical) vs Causality (Empirical) is a basic example - they're exactly the same but few Westerners and particularly those in academic circles would admit to such a thing as it undermines Western status quo.