Intercultural Discourse, Critique, Emancipation and the Inclusion of the Other

• Published in: Ethiopian journal of the social sciences and humanities : EJOSSAH Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 78 - 104
• Main Author: Merawi, Fasil
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Addis Ababa University 09-01-2018
• Subjects: critique; emancipation; interculturality; otherness
• ISSN: 1810-4487; 1810-4487; 2520-582X
• DOI: 10.4314/ejossah.v13i1.4

This paper critically engages contemporary discussions in intercultural philosophy and critical theory in light of achieving a profound critique of grand ideological schemes, propounding a model for an emancipatory praxis and the inclusion of the other in the dominant discourse. Intercultural philosophy tries to deconstruct the Eurocentrism of the philosophical tradition and in return introduces a reconstructive project centered on the embedded nature of cognition and the culturally oriented nature of philosophy. Critical social theory constitutes a critique of grand metaphysical systems that divorce theory from praxis and the transcendent from the transient. In return it tries to introduce an emancipatory praxis inspired by Hegelian-Marxism, is dialectical, reflexive, analyzes the contradictions of modernity and is interdisciplinary. Intercultural philosophy and critical social theory share a common interest in standing against grand metaphysical systems and centering on everyday centers of learning. Through such a critical exposition of the confines of intercultural philosophy and critical social theory, this paper argues that both approaches, (1) fail to go beyond the Eurocentric grand narrative of modernity that legitimizes Western ideology and is antithetical to the lived experiences of the other, (2) both approaches ultimately run into the problem of value incommensurability and (3) both approaches fail to introduce a quasi-transcendental foundation that both translate contending worldviews while simultaneously affirming the place of the other. Finally I will introduce an alternative model founded on the idea of multiple modernities which situates modernity as being situated in diverse cultural backgrounds.