Philosophical questions and reflections. The diversity of otherness. About what unites us and separates us from the other

The Philosophical Interrogations and Reflections session of the “Iași Academic Days” will include in 2025 a national colloquium dedicated to the concepts of the Other and, in a general sense, of otherness. In the history of philosophy, the concept of the Other presupposes the idea of ​​a dualism – an idea that can be traced back to pre-Socratic thought. Through their substantialism, pre-Socratic thinkers reflected on a fundamental dualism regarding the existence of two worlds: a concrete, physical one and an abstract, non-physical one. Later, Plato reserves for the latter, the world of ideas, a privileged, superior place, a standard world, compared to which the physical world becomes an Other that only imitates. In a completely different vision, Aristotle sought the defining elements of the concept of the Other in the difference and diversity visible in the real, concrete surrounding world. The discussion opened by ancient Greek thought on the nature of reality and the definition of otherness will be continued by philosophers such as Hegel, Heidegger or Levinas, being a central theme for existentialism, phenomenology or feminism. For example, for Simone de Beauvoir, woman is always the Other in relation to man. She writes: “It is not a question of the Other who, defining himself as the Other, defines the One: he is established as the Other by a One establishing itself as the One.” (The Second Sex, 2004) Nowadays, the idea that representatives of the “other gender” are also an emblem of otherness has supported the propagation of radical and discriminatory opinions. We are referring here to online communities in what is called the “manosphere,” an area of ​​social media that promotes a deeply misogynistic perspective, with women perceived as manipulable beings, biologically and socially inferior Other. As Reinhart Koselleck has warned, it is important not to forget that almost all attempts to frame the Other in antagonistic terms are undermined by illusions, self-deceptions, and false premises: “Indeed, the Other has the ‘bad habit’ of always being different from what is described by the concept of the enemy.” (Their Concepts and Histories, 2009)

This last issue opens up a broader discussion about the Other in social media: what does the Other actually represent for us in a virtual space? Is he/she a real individual or just an amorphous entity, which each of us shapes according to our own grid of values ​​and criteria through which we relate to the world around us?

The concept of the Other occupies a central place in both moral-political philosophy and anthropology. Man and human societies have defined themselves over time (and) through their relationship with others, with those who are different from them from a social, cultural, religious or ideological point of view. The concept of the Other thus becomes decisive for the constitution of individual and collective identities. The Other acquires an important role in the formation of the identity and solidarity of a group and can also lead to the exclusion and marginalization of those considered to be different or even enemies. Totalitarian ideologies and political regimes have built their discourse over time around a theme that they considered of utmost importance: the identification and definition of the Other. In this sense, Yves Ternon emphasizes that the group classified as an enemy in a totalitarian regime does not always have to be a social reality: “The Other is a representation of the One, who perceives him as a threat that He must, urgently, reduce.” (The Criminal State, 2002) In the same register, populism is an ideology built around the idea of ​​the Other, identified as a danger, responsible and declared a priori guilty of the various more or less real crises that feed the populist discourse.

We invite specialists from various fields of research in the social and humanistic spheres to participate in our colloquium, within which reflections on alterity and the concept of the Other are expected, from a philosophical, political, historical, psychological, sociological or cultural perspective.