Within the
phenomenological tradition, alterity is usually understood as the
entity in contrast to which an
identity is constructed, and it implies the ability to distinguish between
self and not-self, and consequently to assume the
existence of an alternative viewpoint. The concept was further developed by
Emmanuel Levinas in a series of essays, collected in
Altérité et transcendance (
Alterity and Transcendence) (1995).
Jadranka Skorin-Kapov in
The Aesthetics of Desire and Surprise: Phenomenology and Speculation, relates alterity or otherness to newness and surprise, "The signification of the encounter with otherness is not in its novelty (or banal newness); on the contrary, newness has signification because it reveals otherness, because it allows the experience of otherness. Newness is related to surprise, it is a consequence of the encounter... Metaphysical desire is the acceptivity of irreducible otherness. Surprise is the consequence of the encounter. Between desire and surprise there is a pause, a void, a rupture, an immediacy that cannot be captured and presented."
Castoriadis For
Cornelius Castoriadis (''L'institution imaginaire de la société
, 1975; The Imaginary Institution of Society'', 1997) radical alterity/otherness () denotes the element of creativity in history: "For what is given in and through history is not the determined sequence of the determined but the
emergence of radical otherness, immanent creation, non-trivial novelty."
Baudrillard For
Jean Baudrillard (''Figures de l'alterité
, 1994; Radical Alterity'', 2008), alterity is a precious and transcendent element and its loss would seriously impoverish a world culture of increasing sameness and "arrogant, insular cultural narcissism."
Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's theory of alterity was introduced in a 2014 symposium titled Remaking History, the intention of which was to challenge the masculine orthodoxy of history writing. According to Spivak, it is imperative for one to uncover the histories and inherent historical behaviors in order to exercise an
individual right to authentic experience, identity and reality. Within the concept of socially constructed histories one "must take into account the dangerous fragility and tenacity of these concept-metaphors." argues that "ethics is constituted as an inexorable affirmative response to different identities, not through an inability to understand or totalize the other." There is included a long article on alterity in the
University of Chicago's
Theories of Media: Keywords Glossary by Joshua Wexler. Wexler writes: "Given the various theorists' formulations presented here, the mediation of alterity or otherness in the world provides a space for thinking about the complexities of self and other and the formation of identity." The concept of alterity is used in theology and in spiritual books meant for general readers. This is not out of place because, for believers in the Judeo-Christian tradition, God is the ultimate 'Other'. Alterity has also been used to describe the goal of many Christians, to become themselves deeply "other" than the usual norms of behavior and patterns of thought of the secular culture at large.
Enzo Bianchi in
Echoes of the Word expresses this well, "Meditation always seeks to open us to alterity, love and communion by guiding us toward the goal of having in ourselves the same attitude and will that were in Christ Jesus." ==Anthropology==