Alterity and Reversibility in Merleau-Ponty A Discourse on Cultural Diversity and Minority Rights

ABSTRACT 

Cultural diversity is increasingly becoming an inevitable feature of most modern states. This is because trade, tourism, international dialogue amongst scholars, scientists and artists and the movement of skilled labour as well as migration have ensured that few countries do not contain within them significant numbers of peoples from other cultures. A likely consequence of this diversity is clash of cultural interests, especially between minority and majority cultural groups, in response to which proponents of multiculturalism argue for minority rights and recognition for cultural minorities. But multiculturalism tends to over emphasize the “cultural self” at the expense of the “cultural other” culminating in cultural separatism. This thesis takes up, however, the argument that a healthy perception and understanding of ‘the other’ in our relationship with fellow human beings is more fundamental to tackling the challenges of cultural diversity than multiculturalism. The aim of this work, therefore, is to employ Merleau-Ponty’s reversibility thesis (in which one’s world opens upon the other and vice-versa when people come in contact with one another) as an alternative model with which to better understand the ontological nature of the self’s relation to the other as the basis for intercultural reversal of perspectives for social harmony. Methodologically, the qualitative research design is used for this study. Data for the study are collected from books, journals articles, biographies, and interviews. Data from these sources are analyzed by the use of historical-hermeneutics and philosophical exposition/analysis. Historical-hermeneutics is employed to survey and understand previous conceptions of alterity and the self’s relation to alterity in the history of philosophy/thought. Philosophical exposition is used to highlight the relational ontology of the self to alterity in Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of reversibility and also highlight the increasing reality of cultural diversity and minority rights claims. Philosophical/textual analysis is used to analyse Merlau-Ponty’s ontology of alterity and reversibility in order to apply it to the challenges of cultural diversity and multiculturalism, with social development in view.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ i

Dedication----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii

Certification--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii

Approval Page------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ iv

Acknowledgements------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ v

Abstract-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi

Table of Contents-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION------------------------------------------------------------ 1

1.1 Background to the Study----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

1.3 Purpose of the Study----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

1.4 Thesis---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

1.5 Significance of the Study----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

1.6 The Scope of the Study------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

1.7 Research Methodology------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

1.8 Explanation of Terms--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW---------------------------------------------------- 9

CHAPTER THREE: ALTERITY AND REVERSIBILITY IN MERLEAU- PONTY--- 98

3.1 Preamble------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 98

3.2 Husserl and Heidegger: Influences on Merleau-Ponty-------------------------------------------- 99

3.3 Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception: Setting the Stage for Reversibility------- 102

3.4 The role of sensation in perception---------------------------------------------------------------- 105

3.5 One’s own body--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 107

3.6 The body as expression------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 109

3.7 The Reversibility Thesis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 111

3.8 Merleu-Ponty’s Concept of ‘Flesh’: The Framework for Reversibility----------------------- 111

3.9 Reversibility and its Vicissitudes------------------------------------------------------------------ 112

3.9.1 Touch---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 113

3.9.2 Vision and synesthesia-------------------------------------------------------------------- 115

3.9.3 Alterity: The Other and Differentiation------------------------------------------------ 119

3.9.4 Reversibility and reflection: the invisible---------------------------------------------- 123

3.9.5 Reversibility and Language--------------------------------------------------------------- 124

CHAPTER FOUR: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND MINORITY RIGHTS-------------- 131

4.1 Preamble----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 131

4.2 Stages of the Minority Rights Debate-------------------------------------------------------------- 133

4.2.1 Minority Rights as Communitarianism------------------------------------------------ 133

4.2.2 Minority Rights within a Liberal Framework----------------------------------------- 134

4.2.3 Minority Rights as Response to State Nation-Building----------------------------- 135

4.3 A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights: Two Patterns of Cultural Diversity------------------ 138

4.4 Group-Differentiated Rights------------------------------------------------------------------------- 140

4.4.1 Self-Government Rights ----------------------------------------------------------------- 141

4.4.2 Polyethnic Rights ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 142

4.4.3 Special Representation Rights ---------------------------------------------------------- 142

4.5 Societal Cultures: Between Liberalism and Social Life----------------------------------------- 143

4.6 Justifying Group-Differentiated Rights------------------------------------------------------------ 146

4.6.1 The Equality Argument----------------------------------------------------------------- 146

4.6.2 The Inherent Value of Cultural Diversity------------------------------------------- 147

4.6.3 The Analogy between Cultural Minorities and the Existence of States ------- 149

4.7 A Critique of Group-Differentiated Rights: Between Barry and Kymlicka---------------- 150

CHAPTER FIVE: MERLEAU-PONTY’S REVERSIBILITY THESIS AND MULTICULTURALISM: BUILDING A COMMON HUMAN BRIDGE ACROSS CULTURES------------------------------------- 157

1.1 Preamble-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------157

5.2 Merleau-Ponty, Alterity and Intercorporeal Engagement: From Theory to Practice------157

5.3 Common Humanity Amidst Cultural Plurality: Towards Cross-cultural Reversibility-- 160

5.4 Reversibility and The Challenges of Multiculturalism: A Case for Interculturalism----- 166

5.4.1 Intercultural Dialogue and communication---------------------------------------- 167

5.4.2 Interculturalism as Less Groupist and Culture Bound: More Synthesised and Interactive-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 170

5.4.3 Interculturalism as Committed to a Stronger Sense of Whole, National Identity and Social Cohesion--------------------------------------------------------------------- 171

5.4.4 Illiberalism of Multiculturalism------------------------------------------------------- 172

5.5 Reversibility and the Problem of Commensurability/Incommensurability of Cultural Ideologies----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 173

5.5 Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 174