Difference between revisions of "Other"

From Nordan Symposia
Jump to navigationJump to search
m (Text replacement - "http://" to "https://")
 
(One intermediate revision by the same user not shown)
Line 2: Line 2:
  
 
==Origin==
 
==Origin==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ōther; akin to Old High German andar other, [[Sanskrit]] antara
+
[https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ōther; akin to Old High German andar other, [[Sanskrit]] antara
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_century Before 12th Century]
+
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_century Before 12th Century]
 
==Definitions==
 
==Definitions==
 
*1a : being the one (as of two or more) remaining or not included <held on with one hand and waved with the other one>  
 
*1a : being the one (as of two or more) remaining or not included <held on with one hand and waved with the other one>  
Line 14: Line 14:
 
*5: disturbingly or threateningly [[different]] : alien, exotic  
 
*5: disturbingly or threateningly [[different]] : alien, exotic  
 
==Description==
 
==Description==
The '''Other''' or Constitutive Other (also the verb othering) is a key [[concept]] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_philosophy continental philosophy]; it [[opposes]] the Same. The Other refers, or attempts to refer, to that which is Other than the initial [[concept]] being [[considered]]. The Constitutive Other often denotes a [[person]] Other than one’s [[self]]; hence, the Other is identified as “[[different]]”; thus the spelling often is capitalised.
+
The '''Other''' or Constitutive Other (also the verb othering) is a key [[concept]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_philosophy continental philosophy]; it [[opposes]] the Same. The Other refers, or attempts to refer, to that which is Other than the initial [[concept]] being [[considered]]. The Constitutive Other often denotes a [[person]] Other than one’s [[self]]; hence, the Other is identified as “[[different]]”; thus the spelling often is capitalised.
 
==The idea of the Other==
 
==The idea of the Other==
A [[person]]'s definition of the 'Other' is part of what defines or even [[constitutes]] the [[self]] (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_(psychology) self (psychology)], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_(philosophy) self (philosophy)], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-concept self-concept]) and other [[phenomena]] and cultural [[units]]. It has been used in [[social science]] to [[understand]] the [[processes]] by which societies and [[groups]] exclude 'Others' whom they want to subordinate or who do not fit into their [[society]]. The concept of 'otherness' is also integral to the [[comprehending]] of a [[person]], as people construct roles for themselves in [[relation]] to an 'other' as part of a [[process]] of [[reaction]] that is not necessarily related to [[stigmatization]] or condemnation. Othering is [[imperative]] to [[national]] [[identities]], where [[practices]] of admittance and [[segregation]] can form and sustain boundaries and national [[character]]. Othering helps distinguish between [[home]] and away, the uncertain or certain. It often involves the demonization and dehumanization of [[groups]], which further justifies attempts to civilize and exploit these 'inferior' others.
+
A [[person]]'s definition of the 'Other' is part of what defines or even [[constitutes]] the [[self]] (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_(psychology) self (psychology)], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_(philosophy) self (philosophy)], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-concept self-concept]) and other [[phenomena]] and cultural [[units]]. It has been used in [[social science]] to [[understand]] the [[processes]] by which societies and [[groups]] exclude 'Others' whom they want to subordinate or who do not fit into their [[society]]. The concept of 'otherness' is also integral to the [[comprehending]] of a [[person]], as people construct roles for themselves in [[relation]] to an 'other' as part of a [[process]] of [[reaction]] that is not necessarily related to [[stigmatization]] or condemnation. Othering is [[imperative]] to [[national]] [[identities]], where [[practices]] of admittance and [[segregation]] can form and sustain boundaries and national [[character]]. Othering helps distinguish between [[home]] and away, the uncertain or certain. It often involves the demonization and dehumanization of [[groups]], which further justifies attempts to civilize and exploit these 'inferior' others.
 
==History of the idea==
 
==History of the idea==
 
The concept that the self requires the Other to define itself is an old one and has been [[expressed]] by many writers:
 
The concept that the self requires the Other to define itself is an old one and has been [[expressed]] by many writers:
  
The German [[philosopher]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegel Hegel] was among the first to introduce the [[idea]] of the other as constituent in [[self-consciousness]]. He wrote of pre-selfconscious Man: "Each [[consciousness]] pursues the [[death]] of the other", [[meaning]] that in seeing a separateness between you and another, a [[feeling]] of [[alienation]] is created, which you try to resolve by [[synthesis]]. The resolution is depicted in Hegel's famous parable of the master [[slave]] dialectic. For a direct antecedent, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichte Fichte].
+
The German [[philosopher]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegel Hegel] was among the first to introduce the [[idea]] of the other as constituent in [[self-consciousness]]. He wrote of pre-selfconscious Man: "Each [[consciousness]] pursues the [[death]] of the other", [[meaning]] that in seeing a separateness between you and another, a [[feeling]] of [[alienation]] is created, which you try to resolve by [[synthesis]]. The resolution is depicted in Hegel's famous parable of the master [[slave]] dialectic. For a direct antecedent, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichte Fichte].
  
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husserl Husserl] used the [[idea]] as a basis for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersubjectivity intersubjectivity]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sartre Sartre] also made use of such a dialectic in ''Being and Nothingness'', when describing how the world is altered at the [[appearance]] of another [[person]], how the world now appears to orient itself around this other person. At the level Sartre presented it, however, it was without any life-threatening need for resolution, but as a [[feeling]] or [[phenomenon]] and not as a [[radical]] threat. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beauvoir Simone De Beauvoir] made use of otherness — in similar fashion to Sartre — in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Sex ''The Second Sex'']. In fact, De Beauvoir refers to Hegel's master-slave dialectic as [[analogous]], in many respects, to the [[relationship]] of [[man]] and [[woman]].
+
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husserl Husserl] used the [[idea]] as a basis for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersubjectivity intersubjectivity]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sartre Sartre] also made use of such a dialectic in ''Being and Nothingness'', when describing how the world is altered at the [[appearance]] of another [[person]], how the world now appears to orient itself around this other person. At the level Sartre presented it, however, it was without any life-threatening need for resolution, but as a [[feeling]] or [[phenomenon]] and not as a [[radical]] threat. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beauvoir Simone De Beauvoir] made use of otherness — in similar fashion to Sartre — in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Sex ''The Second Sex'']. In fact, De Beauvoir refers to Hegel's master-slave dialectic as [[analogous]], in many respects, to the [[relationship]] of [[man]] and [[woman]].
  
The French psychoanalyst [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan Jacques Lacan] and the Lithuanian-French philosopher [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_L%C3%A9vinas Emmanuel Lévinas] were instrumental in coining contemporary usage of "the Other," as radically other. Lacan articulated the Other with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Symbolic symbolic order] and [[language]]. Levinas connected it with the scriptural and [[traditional]] [[God]], in The Infinite Other.
+
The French psychoanalyst [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan Jacques Lacan] and the Lithuanian-French philosopher [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_L%C3%A9vinas Emmanuel Lévinas] were instrumental in coining contemporary usage of "the Other," as radically other. Lacan articulated the Other with the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Symbolic symbolic order] and [[language]]. Levinas connected it with the scriptural and [[traditional]] [[God]], in The Infinite Other.
  
[[Ethically]], for Levinas, the "Other" is superior or prior to the [[self]]; the mere [[presence]] of the Other makes demands before one can respond by helping them or ignoring them. This [[idea]] and that of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face-to-face face-to-face] encounter were re-written later, taking on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrida Derrida]'s points made about the impossibility of a [[pure]] [[presence]] of the Other (the Other could be other than this [[pure]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alterity alterity] first encountered), and so issues of [[language]] and [[representation]] arose. This "re-write" was accomplished in part with Levinas' analysis of the distinction between "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_saying_and_the_said the saying and the said]" but still maintaining a priority of [[ethics]] over [[metaphysics]].
+
[[Ethically]], for Levinas, the "Other" is superior or prior to the [[self]]; the mere [[presence]] of the Other makes demands before one can respond by helping them or ignoring them. This [[idea]] and that of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face-to-face face-to-face] encounter were re-written later, taking on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrida Derrida]'s points made about the impossibility of a [[pure]] [[presence]] of the Other (the Other could be other than this [[pure]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alterity alterity] first encountered), and so issues of [[language]] and [[representation]] arose. This "re-write" was accomplished in part with Levinas' analysis of the distinction between "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_saying_and_the_said the saying and the said]" but still maintaining a priority of [[ethics]] over [[metaphysics]].
  
 
Levinas talks of the Other in terms of [[insomnia]] and [[wakefulness]]. It is an ''ecstasy'', or exteriority toward the Other that forever remains beyond any attempt at full capture, this otherness is interminable (or [[infinite]]); even in murdering another, the otherness remains, it has not been negated or [[controlled]]. This "infiniteness" of the Other will allow Levinas to derive other aspects of [[philosophy]] and [[science]] as secondary to this [[ethic]]. Levinas writes:
 
Levinas talks of the Other in terms of [[insomnia]] and [[wakefulness]]. It is an ''ecstasy'', or exteriority toward the Other that forever remains beyond any attempt at full capture, this otherness is interminable (or [[infinite]]); even in murdering another, the otherness remains, it has not been negated or [[controlled]]. This "infiniteness" of the Other will allow Levinas to derive other aspects of [[philosophy]] and [[science]] as secondary to this [[ethic]]. Levinas writes:
Line 34: Line 34:
 
The "Other", as a general term in [[philosophy]], can also be used to mean the [[unconscious]], [[silence]], insanity, the other of [[language]] (i.e., what it refers to and what is unsaid), etc.
 
The "Other", as a general term in [[philosophy]], can also be used to mean the [[unconscious]], [[silence]], insanity, the other of [[language]] (i.e., what it refers to and what is unsaid), etc.
  
There may also arise a [[tendency]] towards [[relativism]] if the Other, as pure [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alterity alterity], leads to a notion that ignores the commonality of [[truth]]. Likewise, issues may arise around non-ethical uses of the term, and related terms, that reinforce divisions.
+
There may also arise a [[tendency]] towards [[relativism]] if the Other, as pure [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alterity alterity], leads to a notion that ignores the commonality of [[truth]]. Likewise, issues may arise around non-ethical uses of the term, and related terms, that reinforce divisions.
 
==The Other in gender studies==
 
==The Other in gender studies==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_De_Beauvoir Simone De Beauvoir] changed the Hegelian notion of the Other, for use in her description of [[male]]-dominated [[culture]]. According to her, it treats woman as the Other in relation to man. The Other has thus become an important [[concept]] for studies of the [[sex]]-[[gender]] [[system]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Warner Michael Warner] argues that:
+
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_De_Beauvoir Simone De Beauvoir] changed the Hegelian notion of the Other, for use in her description of [[male]]-dominated [[culture]]. According to her, it treats woman as the Other in relation to man. The Other has thus become an important [[concept]] for studies of the [[sex]]-[[gender]] [[system]]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Warner Michael Warner] argues that:
  
 
<blockquote>the [[modern]] [[system]] of [[sex]] and [[gender]] would not be possible without a disposition to [[interpret]] the [[difference]] between genders as the difference between [[self]] and ''Other'' ... having a sexual object of the [[opposite]] [[gender]] is taken to be the [[normal]] and paradigmatic form of an interest in the Other or, more generally, others.</blockquote>
 
<blockquote>the [[modern]] [[system]] of [[sex]] and [[gender]] would not be possible without a disposition to [[interpret]] the [[difference]] between genders as the difference between [[self]] and ''Other'' ... having a sexual object of the [[opposite]] [[gender]] is taken to be the [[normal]] and paradigmatic form of an interest in the Other or, more generally, others.</blockquote>
  
Thus, according to Warner, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud Freudian] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacan Lacanian] [[psychoanalysis]] hold the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosexist heterosexist] view that if one is attracted to people of the same [[gender]] as one's [[self]], one fails to distinguish self and other, identification and [[desire]]. This is a "regressive" or an "arrested" [[function]]. He further argues that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronormativity heteronormativity] covers its own narcissistic investments by projecting or displacing them on queerness.
+
Thus, according to Warner, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud Freudian] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacan Lacanian] [[psychoanalysis]] hold the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosexist heterosexist] view that if one is attracted to people of the same [[gender]] as one's [[self]], one fails to distinguish self and other, identification and [[desire]]. This is a "regressive" or an "arrested" [[function]]. He further argues that [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronormativity heteronormativity] covers its own narcissistic investments by projecting or displacing them on queerness.
  
De Beauvoir calls the Other the minority, the least [[favored]] one and often a [[woman]], when compared to a man, "for a man [[represents]] both the positive and the neutral, as indicated by the common use of man to designate [[human being]]s in general; whereas [[woman]] represents only the [[negative]], defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan Betty Friedan] supported this [[thought]] when she interviewed [[women]] and the [[majority]] of them identified themselves in their role in the [[private]] [[sphere]], rather than addressing their own [[personal]] achievements. They [[automatically]] identified as the Other without knowing. Although the Other may be [[influenced]] by a socially constructed [[society]], one can [[argue]] that society has the [[power]] to change this [[creation]] (Haslanger).
+
De Beauvoir calls the Other the minority, the least [[favored]] one and often a [[woman]], when compared to a man, "for a man [[represents]] both the positive and the neutral, as indicated by the common use of man to designate [[human being]]s in general; whereas [[woman]] represents only the [[negative]], defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan Betty Friedan] supported this [[thought]] when she interviewed [[women]] and the [[majority]] of them identified themselves in their role in the [[private]] [[sphere]], rather than addressing their own [[personal]] achievements. They [[automatically]] identified as the Other without knowing. Although the Other may be [[influenced]] by a socially constructed [[society]], one can [[argue]] that society has the [[power]] to change this [[creation]] (Haslanger).
  
 
In an effort to dismantle the notion of the Other, Cheshire Calhoun proposed a deconstruction of the word "woman" from a subordinate association and to reconstruct it by proving women do not need to be rationalized by male dominance.[2] This would contribute to the idea of the Other and minimize the hierarchal connotation this word implies.
 
In an effort to dismantle the notion of the Other, Cheshire Calhoun proposed a deconstruction of the word "woman" from a subordinate association and to reconstruct it by proving women do not need to be rationalized by male dominance.[2] This would contribute to the idea of the Other and minimize the hierarchal connotation this word implies.
  
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said Edward Said] applied the feminist notion of the Other to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism colonized] peoples (specifically, in Said's work, Middle Easterners and Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular).
+
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said Edward Said] applied the feminist notion of the Other to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism colonized] peoples (specifically, in Said's work, Middle Easterners and Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular).
  
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarojini_Sahoo Sarojini Sahoo], an Indian feminist writer, agrees with De Beauvoir that [[women]] can only [[free]] themselves by “[[thinking]], taking [[action]], working, creating, on the same terms as [[men]]; instead of seeking to disparage them, she declares herself their [[equal]]." She disagrees, however, that though [[women]] have the same [[status]] to men as [[human beings]], they have their own [[identity]] and they are [[different]] from men. They are "others" in real definition, but this is not in [[context]] with Hegelian definition of “others”. It is not always due to man’s "active" and "subjective" demands. They are the others, unknowingly accepting the subjugation as a part of "[[subjectivity]]".
+
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarojini_Sahoo Sarojini Sahoo], an Indian feminist writer, agrees with De Beauvoir that [[women]] can only [[free]] themselves by “[[thinking]], taking [[action]], working, creating, on the same terms as [[men]]; instead of seeking to disparage them, she declares herself their [[equal]]." She disagrees, however, that though [[women]] have the same [[status]] to men as [[human beings]], they have their own [[identity]] and they are [[different]] from men. They are "others" in real definition, but this is not in [[context]] with Hegelian definition of “others”. It is not always due to man’s "active" and "subjective" demands. They are the others, unknowingly accepting the subjugation as a part of "[[subjectivity]]".
 
==Some Other quotations==
 
==Some Other quotations==
* The [[poet]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud Arthur Rimbaud] may be the earliest to [[express]] the [[idea]]: "Je est un autre" [I is another].
+
* The [[poet]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud Arthur Rimbaud] may be the earliest to [[express]] the [[idea]]: "Je est un autre" [I is another].
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard] argued that others, the crowd, is "untruth", and stressed the importance of the [[individual]].
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard] argued that others, the crowd, is "untruth", and stressed the importance of the [[individual]].
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche], in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gay_Science The Gay Science], phrased it thus: "You are always a different person."
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche], in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gay_Science The Gay Science], phrased it thus: "You are always a different person."
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure] described [[language]] as, in Calvin Thomas' words, a "differential system without positive terms".
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure] described [[language]] as, in Calvin Thomas' words, a "differential system without positive terms".
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan Jacques Lacan] argued that ego-formation occurs through mirror-stage misrecognition, and his theories were applied to politics by Althusser. As the later Lacan said: "The I is always in the field of the Other."
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan Jacques Lacan] argued that ego-formation occurs through mirror-stage misrecognition, and his theories were applied to politics by Althusser. As the later Lacan said: "The I is always in the field of the Other."
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Levinas Emmanuel Levinas], on the other hand, saw apprehension of the other as the basis for ethics, and as a limit on ontology.
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Levinas Emmanuel Levinas], on the other hand, saw apprehension of the other as the basis for ethics, and as a limit on ontology.
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre]'s character Garcin, in the play Huis clos (No Exit), states that "Hell is others," or, alternatively, "Hell is other people." ("L'enfer, c'est les Autres.")
+
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre]'s character Garcin, in the play Huis clos (No Exit), states that "Hell is others," or, alternatively, "Hell is other people." ("L'enfer, c'est les Autres.")
 
==Bibliography==
 
==Bibliography==
 
* Levinas, Emmanuel (1974). Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence. (Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence).
 
* Levinas, Emmanuel (1974). Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence. (Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence).
Line 84: Line 84:
 
#"Otherwise than Being", p.159
 
#"Otherwise than Being", p.159
 
#" McCann, 339
 
#" McCann, 339
#" "http://sarojinisahoo.blogspot.com"
+
#" "https://sarojinisahoo.blogspot.com"
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
* [http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/rww03/othering.htm Definitions of Other/Othering]
+
* [https://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/rww03/othering.htm Definitions of Other/Othering]
  
 
[[Category: Philosophy]]
 
[[Category: Philosophy]]

Latest revision as of 01:22, 13 December 2020

Lighterstill.jpg

Alterity2.jpg

Origin

Middle English, from Old English ōther; akin to Old High German andar other, Sanskrit antara

Definitions

  • 1a : being the one (as of two or more) remaining or not included <held on with one hand and waved with the other one>
b : being the one or ones distinct from that or those first mentioned or implied <taller than the other boys>
c : second <every other day>
  • 2: not the same : different <any other color would have been better> <something other than it seems to be>
  • 3: additional <sold in the United States and 14 other countries>
  • 4a : recently past <the other evening>
b : former <in other times>
  • 5: disturbingly or threateningly different : alien, exotic

Description

The Other or Constitutive Other (also the verb othering) is a key concept in continental philosophy; it opposes the Same. The Other refers, or attempts to refer, to that which is Other than the initial concept being considered. The Constitutive Other often denotes a person Other than one’s self; hence, the Other is identified as “different”; thus the spelling often is capitalised.

The idea of the Other

A person's definition of the 'Other' is part of what defines or even constitutes the self (see self (psychology), self (philosophy), and self-concept) and other phenomena and cultural units. It has been used in social science to understand the processes by which societies and groups exclude 'Others' whom they want to subordinate or who do not fit into their society. The concept of 'otherness' is also integral to the comprehending of a person, as people construct roles for themselves in relation to an 'other' as part of a process of reaction that is not necessarily related to stigmatization or condemnation. Othering is imperative to national identities, where practices of admittance and segregation can form and sustain boundaries and national character. Othering helps distinguish between home and away, the uncertain or certain. It often involves the demonization and dehumanization of groups, which further justifies attempts to civilize and exploit these 'inferior' others.

History of the idea

The concept that the self requires the Other to define itself is an old one and has been expressed by many writers:

The German philosopher Hegel was among the first to introduce the idea of the other as constituent in self-consciousness. He wrote of pre-selfconscious Man: "Each consciousness pursues the death of the other", meaning that in seeing a separateness between you and another, a feeling of alienation is created, which you try to resolve by synthesis. The resolution is depicted in Hegel's famous parable of the master slave dialectic. For a direct antecedent, see Fichte.

Husserl used the idea as a basis for intersubjectivity. Sartre also made use of such a dialectic in Being and Nothingness, when describing how the world is altered at the appearance of another person, how the world now appears to orient itself around this other person. At the level Sartre presented it, however, it was without any life-threatening need for resolution, but as a feeling or phenomenon and not as a radical threat. Simone De Beauvoir made use of otherness — in similar fashion to Sartre — in The Second Sex. In fact, De Beauvoir refers to Hegel's master-slave dialectic as analogous, in many respects, to the relationship of man and woman.

The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and the Lithuanian-French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas were instrumental in coining contemporary usage of "the Other," as radically other. Lacan articulated the Other with the symbolic order and language. Levinas connected it with the scriptural and traditional God, in The Infinite Other.

Ethically, for Levinas, the "Other" is superior or prior to the self; the mere presence of the Other makes demands before one can respond by helping them or ignoring them. This idea and that of the face-to-face encounter were re-written later, taking on Derrida's points made about the impossibility of a pure presence of the Other (the Other could be other than this pure alterity first encountered), and so issues of language and representation arose. This "re-write" was accomplished in part with Levinas' analysis of the distinction between "the saying and the said" but still maintaining a priority of ethics over metaphysics.

Levinas talks of the Other in terms of insomnia and wakefulness. It is an ecstasy, or exteriority toward the Other that forever remains beyond any attempt at full capture, this otherness is interminable (or infinite); even in murdering another, the otherness remains, it has not been negated or controlled. This "infiniteness" of the Other will allow Levinas to derive other aspects of philosophy and science as secondary to this ethic. Levinas writes:

The others that obsess me in the other do not affect me as examples of the same genus united with my neighbor by resemblance or common nature, individuations of the human race, or chips off the old block... The others concern me from the first. Here fraternity precedes the commonness of a genus. My relationship with the Other as neighbor gives meaning to my relations with all the others.

The "Other", as a general term in philosophy, can also be used to mean the unconscious, silence, insanity, the other of language (i.e., what it refers to and what is unsaid), etc.

There may also arise a tendency towards relativism if the Other, as pure alterity, leads to a notion that ignores the commonality of truth. Likewise, issues may arise around non-ethical uses of the term, and related terms, that reinforce divisions.

The Other in gender studies

Simone De Beauvoir changed the Hegelian notion of the Other, for use in her description of male-dominated culture. According to her, it treats woman as the Other in relation to man. The Other has thus become an important concept for studies of the sex-gender system. Michael Warner argues that:

the modern system of sex and gender would not be possible without a disposition to interpret the difference between genders as the difference between self and Other ... having a sexual object of the opposite gender is taken to be the normal and paradigmatic form of an interest in the Other or, more generally, others.

Thus, according to Warner, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis hold the heterosexist view that if one is attracted to people of the same gender as one's self, one fails to distinguish self and other, identification and desire. This is a "regressive" or an "arrested" function. He further argues that heteronormativity covers its own narcissistic investments by projecting or displacing them on queerness.

De Beauvoir calls the Other the minority, the least favored one and often a woman, when compared to a man, "for a man represents both the positive and the neutral, as indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general; whereas woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity". Betty Friedan supported this thought when she interviewed women and the majority of them identified themselves in their role in the private sphere, rather than addressing their own personal achievements. They automatically identified as the Other without knowing. Although the Other may be influenced by a socially constructed society, one can argue that society has the power to change this creation (Haslanger).

In an effort to dismantle the notion of the Other, Cheshire Calhoun proposed a deconstruction of the word "woman" from a subordinate association and to reconstruct it by proving women do not need to be rationalized by male dominance.[2] This would contribute to the idea of the Other and minimize the hierarchal connotation this word implies.

Edward Said applied the feminist notion of the Other to colonized peoples (specifically, in Said's work, Middle Easterners and Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular).

Sarojini Sahoo, an Indian feminist writer, agrees with De Beauvoir that women can only free themselves by “thinking, taking action, working, creating, on the same terms as men; instead of seeking to disparage them, she declares herself their equal." She disagrees, however, that though women have the same status to men as human beings, they have their own identity and they are different from men. They are "others" in real definition, but this is not in context with Hegelian definition of “others”. It is not always due to man’s "active" and "subjective" demands. They are the others, unknowingly accepting the subjugation as a part of "subjectivity".

Some Other quotations

  • The poet Arthur Rimbaud may be the earliest to express the idea: "Je est un autre" [I is another].
  • Søren Kierkegaard argued that others, the crowd, is "untruth", and stressed the importance of the individual.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche, in The Gay Science, phrased it thus: "You are always a different person."
  • Ferdinand de Saussure described language as, in Calvin Thomas' words, a "differential system without positive terms".
  • Jacques Lacan argued that ego-formation occurs through mirror-stage misrecognition, and his theories were applied to politics by Althusser. As the later Lacan said: "The I is always in the field of the Other."
  • Emmanuel Levinas, on the other hand, saw apprehension of the other as the basis for ethics, and as a limit on ontology.
  • Jean-Paul Sartre's character Garcin, in the play Huis clos (No Exit), states that "Hell is others," or, alternatively, "Hell is other people." ("L'enfer, c'est les Autres.")

Bibliography

  • Levinas, Emmanuel (1974). Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence. (Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence).
  • Levinas, Emmanuel (1972). Humanism de l'autre homme. Fata Morgana.
  • Lacan, Jacques (1966). Ecrits. London: Tavistock, 1977.
  • Lacan, Jacques (1964). The Four Fondamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis. London: Hogarth Press, 1977.
  • Foucault, Michel (1990). The History of Sexuality vol. 1: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage.
  • Derrida, Jacques (1973). Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs. Trans. David B. Allison. Evanston: Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
  • Kristeva, Julia (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Butler, Judith (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
  • Butler, Judith (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex". New York: Routledge.
  • Zuckermann, Ghil‘ad (2006), "'Etymythological Othering' and the Power of 'Lexical Engineering' in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. A Socio-Philo(sopho)logical Perspective", Explorations in the Sociology of Language and Religion, edited by Tope Omoniyi and Joshua A. Fishman, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 237–258.

Sources

  • Thomas, Calvin, ed. (2000). "Introduction: Identification, Appropriation, Proliferation", Straight with a Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06813-0.
  • Cahoone, Lawrence (1996). From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.
  • Colwill, Elizabeth. (2005). Reader—Wmnst 590: Feminist Thought. KB Books.
  • Haslanger, Sally. Feminism and Metaphysics: Unmasking Hidden Ontologies. [1]. 11/28/2005.
  • McCann, Carole. Kim, Seung-Kyung. (2003). Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives. Routledge. New York, NY.
  • Rimbaud, Arthur (1966). "Letter to Georges Izambard", Complete Works and Selected Letters. Trans. Wallace Fowlie. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich (1974). The Gay Science. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage.
  • Saussure, Ferdinand de (1986). Course in General Linguistics. Eds. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye. Trans. Roy Harris. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court.
  • Lacan, Jacques (1977). Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Norton.
  • Althusser, Louis (1973). Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Trans. Ben Brewster. New York: Monthly Review Press.
  • Warner, Michael (). "Homo-Narcissism; or, Heterosexuality", Engendering Men, p. 191. Eds. Boone and Cadden.
  • Tuttle, Howard (1996). The Crowd is Untruth, Peter Lang Publishing, ISBN 0-8204-2866-3

References

  1. "Otherwise than Being", p.159
  2. " McCann, 339
  3. " "https://sarojinisahoo.blogspot.com"

External links