ABSTRACT
The Other is a modern concept. Only after Edmund Husserl explores the relation between the subject and the other does this concept arouse wide concern in the Western academia. The philosophical origin of the other can be traced back to the discussion of being and non-being in ancient Greek philosophy. Opposing the polytheistic system of Homer and Hesiod’s mythology, Xenophanes advocates the existence of “the one”, a single, eternal and immobile god beyond our phenomenal world. And thence Parmenides proposes that “being” is “the one”. After phenomenology and existentialism, post-structuralism launched another wave of reflection and criticism on Western culture. The theoretical exploration into the other made by Jacques Lacan, Paul-Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida ranges from philosophical speculation to social and cultural life, demonstrating a subversive power. The historical review of philosophical context reveals that the concept of the other has been explored in its relationships with the One/Same and the self/subject rather than in the ontological sense.
