Abstract

RIZO-PATRON, Rosemary. Difference and Otherness from Husserl’s Phenomenology. arete [online]. 2010, vol.22, n.1, pp.87-106. ISSN 1016-913X.

The issue of "pluralism", often approached exclusively from the perspective of ethical, political, and cultural challenges that the era of globalization lays at the door of human communities all over the world, faces us in fact with deep rational dilemmas upon which humanity has reflected since the dawn of Greek philosophy. The A. refers to two of them: the relationship, on the one side, between unity and multiplicity; and, on the other, between "sameness" and "otherness", namely, between "identity" and "difference". Without their recognition, the possibility itself of theoretical thought, practical rules, and ethical or esthetical valuation would collapse. This paper reconsiders this ancient tension on a less abstract level, proposing to lay down some problems on "difference" and "otherness" from the perspective of Husserl’s theory of cultural and social intersubjectivity, namely, of the higher problems of intermonadic community.

Keywords : pluralism; identity; difference; otherness; social intersubjectivity; Husserl; phenomenology.

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