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ERIC Number: EJ870476
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Oct
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1744-9642
EISSN: N/A
Beyond Monolingualism: Philosophy as Translation and the Understanding of "Other" Cultures
Saito, Naoko
Ethics and Education, v4 n2 p131-139 Oct 2009
Beyond a monolingual mentality and beyond the language that is typically observed in the prevalent discourse of education for understanding other cultures, this article tries to present another approach: Stanley Cavell's idea of "philosophy as translation." This Cavellian approach shows that understanding foreign cultures involves a relation to other cultures already within one's native culture. Foreshadowing the Cavellian sense of tragedy, Emerson's "Devil's child" helps us detect the sources of repression and blindness that are hidden behind the foundationalist approach to other cultures. The child represents the human condition in which the self and language are simultaneously in the process of translation. On the strength of this I propose a possibility of understanding other cultures that is crucially related to language education, one that can point us "beyond monolingualism." Cavell's view of language and the self envisions a way of releasing, not repressing, the desire to express one's inner light as a crucial source of the revival of one's native culture from within, while at the same time cultivating an eye for the other, the stranger, who is already here within oneself. This is to find "alterity" in the human condition in terms of the translation that is inherent to language and the immigrancy of the self. (Contains 1 note.)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A