安樂哲、郝大維呢批學者認為，儒家應該用中國哲學方式嘅思維去理解，而唔應該去附會西方嘅思維。同時，佢哋又認為儒家學說嘅內容同埋約翰杜威嘅社羣共同生活以及民主思想又有相通嘅地方。於是，新儒家學者又將儒家思想同埋杜威嘅美國實用主義會通，形成咗關注社羣生活嘅儒家民主主義。
Scholars such as Ames and David Hao believe that Confucianism should be understood in the way of Chinese philosophy, rather than in the way of Western thinking. At the same time, they believe that the content of Confucianism has something in common with John Dewey's idea of community living and democracy. As a result, Neo-Confucian scholars combined Confucianism with Dewey's United States pragmatism to form a Confucian democracy that focused on community life.