It is a notable phenomenon in recent East-West comparative philosophy that Confucian communitarianism is proposed as an alternative to Western liberal individualism in a forward- rather than backward-looking spirit.² What proponents of Confucianism often single out as particularly worthy of endorsement in an age chastened by antifoundationalism and historicism is the Confucian relational concept of the person. They claim that this concept is both epistemically more cogent and ethically more attractive than the liberal individualistic concept of the person. They see in this concept no just a better alternative regarding specific problems but a superior framework for dealing with a whole range of social and ethical issues, from the environment to human rights to bioethics, in which liberal individualism is often handicapped by its epistemic and moral biases.