Introduction: Cultural Flesh and Intercultural Understanding: A Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

This book aims at promoting intercultural understanding in philosophy as a philosophical response to the intensification of conflicts among cultures in the Twenty-First Century. This introductory chapter explains the phenomenological approach adopted to carry out such a task. It will begin by presenting the antithetic aspects of Husserlian phenomenology in regard to intercultural understanding in philosophy. It will points out the closed nature of Husserl’s Idea of philosophy as “pure theoria” and the openness of the phenomenological method exemplified by the heritage of the phenomenological movement as the collective result of concrete philosophical practices of its classical authors. This will be followed by exposition of the three aspects of intercultural understanding in philosophy undertaken throughout the whole book, namely: critique of the Eurocentric Idea of philosophy; reflections on the conditions of possibility of intercultural understanding in philosophy; and concrete exercises of intercultural understanding in philosophy with regard to doctrines, theses, concepts and methods between the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions. The novel concept of cultural flesh coined by the present author will be introduced and a preliminary explanation of how this concept can facilitate the entrance into the horizons of other cultures will be undertaken.