Perspectives of the category alterity: anthropology, utopia

Abstract

There are two modes of thinking —and, in a certain sense, also of action— that have the category of alterity at their core. At first glance, they seem to be completely different, even opposite. The first one is a renowned scientific discipline dedicated to the analysis of socio-cultural reality observable in different epochs and regions of the world, which has a successfui history of a century and a half in spite of cyclic lamentations about “being in crisis”. The latter is a tradition generally identified, in a reductionist manner, with a certain kind of fantastic literature born of the personal discontent of some North Atlantic authors, which had its peak between the sixteenth and nineteenth cenniries, and which disappeared at the beginning of the short twentieth century, by the end of which it had even acquired a negative connotation. The objective of this article consists not only in demonstrating that, in spite of appearance, both cultural forms have a lot in common, but also that they have been tightly connected and sometimes remain so, even today. Recognizing the causes of their separation permits us to explore their potential reencounter, which, in turn, allows us to achieve a better understanding of our time and of its perspective, of our perspectives in today’s world.