中西文化的差異從其思維邏輯而言，一者為中國傳統的互系性思維（Correlative thinking）；1一者為希臘文化的科學邏輯思維，兩者對於「人」本質性的探討也因思維邏輯的不同而有不一樣的認知。西方學者李約瑟（Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, 1900-1995）認為中國「科學的人文主義」是「其一不把人與自然分離；其二不把人與社會分離」，2中國先秦以來發展出來的「天人合一」的文化精神，與希臘文化中發展出來的「個人主義」將「人」視作獨立於自然與社會之外存在的個體便有根本性的差異。本文試圖透過中西文化對「人」本身自我認識思維方法的差異，進而分析中西人物肖像畫藝術創作的表現，以闡釋中西人物肖像畫不同的表現形式中所蘊含的文化與藝術精神的獨特性質。

In terms of logic, the differences between Chinese and western cultures lie in the facts that Chinese tradition is about correlative thinking, while Greek culture is characterized by scientific logic and that their respective explorations about the nature of “man” are different due to their differences in logic. Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (1900-1995), a western scholar, believed that the Chinese “scientific humanism” neither separates man from nature nor man from society. “The unity of heaven and man,” developed in the pre-Qin Period of China, is fundamentally distinct from the “individualism” developed in Greek culture, which sees “man” independent of nature and society. Here we try to analyze the artistic expressions of Chinese and western portraits from the perspective of their different logics about “man” in order to explicate the unique attributes of cultures and artistic spirits contained in the distinctive expressive forms of Chinese and western portraits.