通識教育是什麼？基本上與教育的功能、目的有關。目前通識教育的概念與名稱源自於西方的Liberal Education（「博雅教育」）與General Education（「通識教育」或「通才教育」），是西方在教育發展過程中的一種理念與實踐，不論是用如何的名稱，實質上都對西方的教育產生一定程度的效用。這些理念源自於中古時期的教育科目「七藝」，並影響到美國著名大學。臺灣近年對於通識教育著力甚深，也經常以哈佛大學通識教育的內容作為推行大學通識教育的範本。但是即使哈佛大學本身的通識概念也是在七藝的基礎上不斷有所改變，這些改變顯然與當是時美國的空間與時間的改變有著密切的關連。因而當我們要將西方通識概念運用到大學教育之時，也應該從中國的傳統出發，因著不同的文化與社會結構規劃適合於自己文化與傳統的通識教育。中國傳統文化與農業文明息息相關，同時由於漢武帝的獨尊儒術，使儒家思想與中國文化緊密結合，形成中國的教育型態－儒家所代表的士人文化成為教育的主要內容、教育與擢拔領導人才結合、重視通才教育。在今日社會中如何將傳統文化的內涵賦予現代化的意義，應該就是當前通識教育應該要追尋的路。

General Education is essentially correlated with the function and purpose of education. The contemporary concept of general education originated from the Western concept of Liberal Education and General Education, both of which are sets of ideals and practices developed historically in Western societies. Whichever the name, their influence on Western education is profound. These ideas originated from the Septem Artes Liberales in the Middle Ages, and has influenced important contemporary American educational institutions. In recent years, Taiwan put much effort in promoting general education, and has often considered the general education program at Harvard University as the paradigm of university-level general education. Yet, while the general education program at Harvard University is based on the seven arts in principle, it is itself a historical product, one that changes according to the spatio-temporal changes of the U.S. Similarly, when Taiwanese institutions wish to apply western concepts of general education to Taiwanese university education programs, they should also be aware of their own Chinese tradition in education, and develop a general education program that is suitable for Taiwanese socio-cultural environment. The Chinese tradition of education sprang from an agricultural civilization, and has been systematically incorporated with Confucianism during the Han Dynasty, when Han emperor Wu promoted Confucianism as the principle doctrine for the empire. A typical program of Confucianism training aims at producing literati leaders with general skills. How to modernize this type of program should be the primary concern for current general education programs.