Abstract

If philosophy is the only discourse that has ever intended to receive its name from itself, and to leave nothing outside itself, what would be (Western) philosophy's relation to its (Chinese) other? This question is rethought through a rereading of three major Western philosophers, Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger, and a Chinese philosopher, Feng Youlan. Philosophy is seen, on the one hand, to dialecticize its other but necessarily to fall short of its aim and, on the other, to claim for itself uniqueness and originality but necessarily to be constituted by and through an other. Also, the claim made by the other of philosophy to the rightful title of "philosophy" can also turn out paradoxically to be a claim by philosophy to its other