François Bernier și Brahmanii: Un Obstacol în Calea Conversaţiei Inter- Culturale (François Bernier And The Brahmans: Exposing An Obstacle To Cross-Cultural Conversation)

Authors

  • Robert Bernasconi

Keywords:

Cross-cultural conversation, Universal values, François Bernier, Kant, Herder, Hinduism

Abstract

Taking its cue from François Bernier’s Voyages and focusing on the assumptions that stand in the background of Immanuel Kant’s view of the encounter between Christianity and Hinduism, this text endeavors to bring to light the theoretical framework that shaped the dialogue between the West and the East since the 18th century. The author’s contention is that the way that Western philosophy has tended to conceive of universal values has been one of the fundamental obstacles that has hindered a genuine cross-cultural conversation in this sense.

Author Biography

Robert Bernasconi

Currently holds the Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence in philosophy at the University of Memphis, USA. He is the author of The Question of Language in Heidegger’s History of Being (1985), Heidegger in Question: The Art of Existing (1993) and How to Read Sartre (2007). He has edited and co-edited more than 15 books including Derrida and Différance (1988), The Provocation of Levinas: Rethinking the Other (1988), The Idea of Race, Race and Racism in Continental Philosophy (2000), Concepts of Race in the Eighteenth Century (2001), The Cambridge Companion to Levinas (2002).

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Published

2026-08-31

Issue

Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, vol. 7, no. 19, Spring 2008

Section

Studies & Articles