孔子說：「君子和而不同，小人同而不和。」指出「君子」、「小人」與人相處之不同態度。這是和諧指涉人與人之間關係的一種典範。但，和諧的範圍不單狹隘地指涉此。人（human beings）不同於上帝、天使，亦不同於物質物、礦物、植物、動物，人作為一肉體和靈魂組成的複合實體，作為一具有理智、意志和情感，以及同具本性（nature）和超性（super-nature）面向的特殊存有，不能自我封閉，只關心自身的處境，必須同時向「他者」開放。自我封閉、只關心自身的處境或利益，這樣就個體人而言，即成為「自我（利己）主義」、「自我中心主義」或「個人主義」；就群體人而言，即成為「人類中心主義」；二者都易流於狹隘的個人、族群或類屬主義。凡「異於己者」即是「他者」，因此，向「他者」開放包括：向他人開放（同屬人之存有之類屬）、向世界開放（包含物與自然界）、向超越界（上天或上帝）開放。自我唯有當向他者開放之時，才能真正成全與滿全自我，才能達致「整全的人」（holistic person）。這也才是「和諧」的多元整全意涵。

Confucius said, “The gentleman aims at harmony, and not at uniformity. The mean man aims at uniformity, and not at harmony.” It points out that the gentleman and the mean man have different attitudes when they deal with people. This is an example of how harmony refers to the relationships between people. Yet, the domain of harmony is not so narrow. Human beings are compound substances of the body and the soul, unlike God, angels, material objects, minerals, plants or animals; they are special beings with reason, wills, feelings and complete with nature and super-nature. Instead of embracing self-isolation and seeking self-interest, they have to open themselves to the “other.” Self-isolation and self-interest seeking would lead to egoism (privatism), egocentricism and individualism individually and anthropocentrism collectively, both of which tend to fall into insular individualism, ethnicism and categorism. Whoever that “differs from oneself” is the “other”; therefore, opening oneself to the “other” consists of being open to others (of the same category of human beings), being open to the world (including things and nature), being open to the transcendental (Heaven or God). One has to be open to the other for his or her self to be whole and rounded whereby to be a “holistic person”, which is exactly the pluralistic and comprehensive meaning of “harmony.”