Beyond Silks and Spices, East and West: A Transcultural Perspective

Abstract

Paul Ricoeur’s famous dictum that ‘To say self is not to say I’, and its corollary that ‘the shortest route from self to self is through the other’ can be applied to the larger context of cultures, civilisations, and the nature of their relationships. Cultures and civilisations cannot live in isolation. This paper analyses how a new collaborative basis between the East and the West can be established to remove an enduring misunderstanding that has plagued sound intercultural relations for quite some time. A renewed cooperation is indeed possible, but it should first be settled on a redefinition of the way we understand cultures, civilisations, and their relationship. This redefinition is the task of transcultural studies, whose clarification of the metaphysical and epistemological justifications for such cooperation concurs with the important ongoing economic and political endeavours.