Das Eigene, das Fremde und das husserlsche Einstimmigkeitstheorem

In this paper I offer an analysis of the issue of interculturality from the point of view of Husserl’s late phenomenology, with particular attention to the notions of concordance and tendency to concordance. After presenting the mainstream criticism of Husserl’s approach to cultural otherness, according to which genuine otherness has to be conceived of radically and according to which Husserlian phenomenology is intrinsically unable to do so, I summarize the core of Husserl’s position with what I call the “theorem of concordance”. According to this theorem, in every cross-cultural encounter intersubjective concordance is always a priori reachable regardless of the point of departure of the subjects involved. This theorem can be demonstrated by exploring the implications of three fundamental assumptions that guide Husserl’s thought: (1) doxic discordance between subjects in unbearable; (2) all cultural significance is mediately or immediately founded on doxic positions; (3) culture is directed towards and expresses itself in the configuration of the surrounding world. The conclusion of the paper is that otherness and in particular cultural otherness cannot be as radical as some contemporary continental philosophers would have it.