VII. Our Earthuman Ascent: A Major Evolutionary Transition in Twindividuality

4. A Complementarity of Civilizations: East and West is Best

Zhengkun, Gu. Confucian Family Values as Universal Values in the 21st Century. Berliner China-Hefte Chinese History and Society. Volume 41, 2012. The Peking University, Institute of World Literature, scholar writes an insightful article as to why this venerable, harmonious Asian tradition is even more vital today. At the outset, it is noted that Confucius (551-479 BC) did not speak alone but gave evocative script to this abiding familial milieu. As the quotes convey, a clear contrast can then be drawn with an opposite Western, American cast based on combative “bellicose” aggrandizement. The use of “family” for China is meant to imply a balance of Taoist feminine yin and male yang, a parental egalitarian complementary for the good of daughter and son children. It is noted that Christian values of faith, hope and charity are fine, but are not often practiced. Of course, the same could be said for China, as Robin Wang (search) documents where in fact men similarly rule and define women to suit. An extended article by Gu Zhengkun “Family-Nation-World: The Origin and Comparison of Chinese and Western Values” can be viewed online at: www.east-west-dichotomy.com/gu-zhengkun-family-nation-world. And as a surmise might we imagine a cosmic Confucius, and Christ, whence such a “family cosmos” could be a fitting, mutually fair, overall image?

The paper aims to answer a challenging question: what sort of values are held to be relative more acceptable and valid than others in the 21st century? In my opinion, the best choice is the Confucian value system, which, derived from the traditional family-like society, is the most universal moral guide for mankind that has ever been offered by any society in the past. (43) Altruism and Self-Centered Individualism: Altruism, in China, is widely esteemed as the first principle and is often placed next to ren (the good feeling of person when being altruistic). According to this principle, one’s own interests take second place. Traditional Chinese values advocate a family-like structure for the world, with peace and reconciliation. According to the prescribed standard of morality, the strong should be restrained a little and the weak should be helped a little, aggression should be prohibited and war, opposed. In contrast, traditional Western values advocate competition; the principle of natural selection, and the survival of the fittest is widely propagated and bellicosity has become a pattern. (52)

Zhu, Ying and Shihui Han. Cultural Differences in the Self: From Philosophy to Psychology and Neuroscience. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 2/5, 2008. Apropos to the arising concept of a person not as a man alone out of any context, but truly a reciprocity of individual and community, Peking University psychologists contribute a historical and current realization of such a “relational self” (aka African ubuntu), so long in coming. The paper is available from Dr. Han’s website, and see also “Understanding the Self: A Cultural Neuroscience Approach” by Han and Georg Northoff in Progress in Brain Research (178/1, 2009).

Different thinking styles in Westerners and Chinese (analytic vs. holistic) lead to disparities between the two cultures not only in perception and attention but also in high-level social cognition such as self-representation. Most Western philosophers discussed the self by focusing on personal self-identity, whereas Chinese philosophers emphasized the relation between the self and others. Dissimilar philosophical thinking of the self is associated with distinct cognitive styles of self-representation (i.e., the independent self in Westerners and the interdependent self in Chinese). (1799)

The cultural difference in self-related processing can be understood in the framework that Western sciences emphasize on atoms, molecules, fundamental particles, and biological molecules in order to find ultimate cause underlying things, whereas Chinese notion about the nature is based on ‘relation’ which hypothesized a self-organized physical world in order to keep its balance. (1811)

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