Il Terzo nella relazione di alterità

Pierpaolo Donati

Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Accademico Effettivo

Abstract

Every day we encounter the different, the Other than us. The diversity among us puts us in potential conflict. What to do? In these types of encounters there is little point in asking “who am I?” and/or “who are you?”, because arguing on the basis of preyed identities leads nowhere. Rather, the question is: “who am I for you and who are you for me?”, that is, focusing on our relationship, in which there is a boundary that divides us but also unites us. This is the Third included. It can generate misunderstandings and conflicts, or, vice versa, relational goods. It depends on how we treat it. The article talks about the Third as an emerging effect included between the Self and the Other, on which the identity of each of them depends. Only by taking care of the Third can we experience otherness as a relationship of recognition of the Other, and therefore of ourselves, and in this way find the meaning of what it means to be human.

Keywords

Otherness, Alterity, Third included, Relational sociology, Humanness.

© Pierpaolo Donati, 2024 / Doi: 10.30682/annalesm2402f

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license