Polemology and xenology: Waldenfels and the sting of the alien

In: Filozofija i društvo, Band 29, Heft 3, S. 377-386

Abstract

After explaining why phenomenology of the alien cannot be counted among
traditional philosophical disciplines, the author explores why all of
European history can be read as the ?shading of the alien? (Verblendung des
Fremden), although not in the sense of mere disregarding, neglecting or
denying of the alien, but disciplining it, manipulating and exploiting it.
The alien has not been forgotten for centuries, it was always in the
European focus, but only as an instance through which the sense of power was
traditionally constructed. Following the basic presumptions of Bernhard
Waldenfels? phenomenology of the alien the article presents the shading of
the alien as analogous to the process of its naturalization. As if the
tradition of European colonialism can be best understood in the key of
ma?tre et possesseur de?l ?tranger. That is to say, the European legacy
shows, in an extraordinary manner, that the alien can be transformed into a
resource, from which we can appropriate and assimilate everything. A crucial
insight for Waldenfels is also that strangeness is not reducible to a narrow
segment of reality, whether it is culture, religion or art-based, because
strangeness is a radical dimension that transcends all regions.