Contextualization and Cross-Cultural Understanding

Meaning in language is always contextual, and so is the intellectual pursuit of any kind. In making a case in any scholarly discourse, we always respond to a prior argument in the form of a dialogue or intellectual exchange and communication, and that in significant ways determines the orientation of our own argument. In 20th-century theorizing in the West, be it philosophical, historical, sociological, anthropological, or literary-critical, a tendency toward overemphasizing difference becomes prominent, and that forms the context within which we need to rethink the basic assumptions in the humanistic and social scientific studies. To make explicit what contextual determinants govern contemporary intellectual discourse is a way forward to think “outside the box,” so to speak, and to rectify some of the excesses, particularly in East-West cross-cultural understanding.