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Confucian philosophy has always considered education as a mechanism to improve the quality of life in society. The Confucian classic, Ta Hsueh and the Analects emphasize this pivotal role of education. The ethics of education and life in the family also has a deep impact on government and business enterprises. Each one plays assigned roles and lives by the rules that govern his or her station in social life. The ninth chapter of the Ta Shueh teachesthat "correct deportment" can rectify a whole country. Projecting the ethics of the family to the social order and extending the ethos of particular cultural practices to the global community, however, poses certain problems. The scope of the latter is much more extensive than the family and broader than the cultural practices of particular nation states. When family relations are preferred over that of others, authoritarian political power will not be too farbehind. This paper is an investigation of the nature and limits of Confucian educational philosophy and its influence on society against the backdrop of globalization.

Ibana's paper proposes an articulation of the noble aspirations of traditional cultures against the horizon of the monolithic grids of Western globalization. The case of Mr. Angelo de la Cruz, the truck driver whose life was saved by the Philippine government by withdrawing its troops from Iraq has shown that the intrusive powers of the global geopolitics can be thwarted by local cultures as long as the latter can justify their values within the broader context of the community of human persons. The withdrawal by the weaker party from the game of power can succeed only to the extent that such a withdrawal is premised on the affirmation of higher values.