This belief helps explain the success of communism in China. It also helps explain the focus on teamwork found in Japanese auto manufacturing companies. This is not to say that all Asians read Confucius. But Confucius' ideas are in step with a broad spectrum of Eastern culture, just as Judeo-Christianity plays a major role in Western thinking, even for people who don't consider themselves religious. In general, traditional Western philosophy has focused less heavily than Eastern thought on society for its own sake.
Western thought tends to be more preoccupied with the individual.
Lexicon Individualism is the view that individual rights and freedoms should form the basis of society. Collectivism is the view that the stability of society is more important than individual rights and freedoms. A number of philosophers have thought about individualism. One of them is the 19th century French political philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville. De Tocqueville said that individualism is especially prominent in the United States where there is a democratic political system.