This study has three separate but interrelated aims: to offer a methodological approach for comparative philosophy on the level of the philosophical system; to examine Confucian philosophy as a philosophical system, with emphasis on its epistemological dimensions; and to use the thought of a particular thinker as an example of how the Confucian tradition was appropriated by individual thinkers.

The author demonstrates that Confucian philosophy was a social system in which ideas and actions gained philosophical meaning in reference to specific socio-historical contexts and to specific levels of society (from the Confucian tradition itself to the individual person).

Throughout, the author employs insights from anthropological theory, notably the social theory of communication, and draws on Western philosophy to illuminate Confucian ideas and assumptions and to provide cross-cultural comparisons and contrasts.