Epistemic Arena

This chapter presents details of the setting that constitute the epistemic context of, not only Confucian heritage and Western cultures, but of all humanity. Both Eastern and Western cultures and civilizations are situated in the context of human existence. Conditions that are common to all of humanity include human-to-human quandaries, cruelty, and other troubles that are in addition to natural disasters, disease, and death. Differences in the perception of the nature and status of individual personhood have meant and continue to manifest universal appreciation and disapproval in societies differentially. Confucianism engulfs the ethical convention of societies that have adopted the dogma of ancestor worship and filial piety, including the family as model of polity. Expressed in biological and sociocultural terms, individual differences pervade all of humanity. The nature of humans accounts for biological differences. In contrast, sociocultural attributes of individual differences are culturally based.