China-Europa-Forum, 3-7 October, 2007

　　Preliminary Remarks

　　“Chinese and European Views of the Individuals and Society” (code WT 11) is one of 49 workshops organized within the framework of the 2nd. China-Europa-Forum, held 3-7 October, 2007, organized by the ‘Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer pour le progrès de l’homme”.

　　Defining the problem

　　The question how a Chinese individual views his European parallel and the behavior of this individual in European society, and how a European views Chinese society and each individual’s position in this society, is mainly dependent upon two factors: (1) the perception of the roles of the individual and of society and their mutual relation in the own cultural sphere, i.e., the background against which the ‘other’ is perceived, and (2) the knowledge of and the empathy with which we regard the ‘other’ cultural sphere that determines the individual’s and the society’s behavior in that specific cultural sphere. It are these two elements that (1) determine the exactitude of our interpretation of the ‘other’, (2) will reveal the challenges in our mutual understanding, and (3) give us guidelines how at best to consolidate the future dialogue between Europe and China. It therefore is necessary to lay out the fundaments of the individual-society relation in both Europe and China.