Transversality and Comparative Political Philosophy in the Age of Globalization

Authors

  • Hwa Yol Jung Moravian College, USA

Abstract

Taking a cue from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is widely known as “the first American public intellectual,” this essay is an attempt to define the critical function of comparative political philosophy in today’s world of multiculturalism in the era of globalization which is in dire need of dialogue on a global scale. In the first place, Western modernity has overlooked and marginalized the non-West, the phenomenon of which is called Eurocentrism. All ethnocentrisms, including Eurocentrism, are myopic and have no place in the globalizing world of multiculturalism. This essay proposes that Eurocentric universality be replaced by transversality which is consonant with the multiple realities of the changing world. Transversality as a global imaginary allows all kinds of border-crossing and thus blurs traditional disciplinary genres. Thus it is at once intercultural, interspeciesistic, and interdisciplinary. In the second place, the role of comparative political philosophy radically shifts from the individualistic and anthropocentric tradition of “rights talk” to the ethics of responsibility based on the primacy of alterity. If, according to Levinas, ethics is “first philosophy,” then responsibility becomes “first ethics.”

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2008): January - June 2008

Section

Articles

License

Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright
By publishing in Prajñā Vihāra, the author agrees to transfer and assign to Assumption University of Thailand as the Publisher of the Journal, the copyright to the Article in any form, including any and all rights, interests and claims related to it.

The author does retain the following rights:

  1. The right to make further copies of the published article for their use in classroom teaching.
  2. The right to reuse all or part of the published article in a compilation of his or her own works or in textbooks of which they are the author or coauthor.
  3. The right to make copies of the published article for internal distribution within their academic institution.
  4. All proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.
The author must also guarantee that:
  1. The Article is his or her original work, and has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  2. It does not contain any matter that is obscene, libelous, or contrary to law.
  3. They have obtained the necessary license or written authority and paid any and all related fees for the use and reproduction of text, tables, illustrations and other copyrighted work from the owners of the intellectual property rights, and can furnish the Publisher copies of the license/written authority and proof of payment of related fees upon the signing of this Agreement.
  4. They have the consent of the Co-Authors of the article upon the signing of this Agreement.
  5. In the event that they intend to republish, reprint or translate all or part of the Article in other publications, they will secure the prior written permission from the journal Editor.

Prajñā Vihāra adopts the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) license