Eastern and Western philosophy work better together?

*must*? No. if you were required to choose between the two i would choose Eastern. I majored in philosophy , and minored in religious studies. My subjective take on this question is that Eastern provided valuable theory supported by effective practices for actually *experiencing* "divinity". The Western counterpart supplied mostly argument and hyper left brained theorizing. In the spirit of "never mistake the map for the territory", the Western was quite map oriented, eh? :))

Nevertheless, a study of both would be desirable in order to gain a broader, and wiser perspective on the field, generally.

i think it's hard to discuss something as varied, particular, and specific as "philosophy" in such generalized, broad terms as "Eastern" or "Western"...

that being said, i also think that the notion that a "complete understanding of humanity & the nature of the universe" is a pursuable and/or desirable goal may be a distinctly "Western" ideal.

so a synthesis between the two may not lead to this outcome, but may adjust one's attitude to a more "Eastern" outlook which regards the pursuit of this type of understanding as not worth pursuing (since all such understanding is considered illusory by many "Eastern" philosphies).

this depends on which philosphies/philosophers you define as "Western" and "Eastern." it also depends on how you define the idea of their "working together"...

in a basic sense, it seems obvious that examining anything from multiple angles necessarily leads to a better understanding (regardless of which hemisphere those angles originated in).

Variety is the spice of life. Confucius can be very illuminating just as Plato was. A very good combination indeed - East/West

No. Much of the philosophy of the east is mystical and bears little or none on the state of reality.