Who is my neighbour? Scepticism and the claims of alterity

Abstract This article begins with the question put by the teacher of the law to Jesus about the limits of obligation to the stranger and, hence, the extent of neighbourhood. It relates this to the ways in which ideas of alterity are manifested in the language of multiculturalism, now a somewhat tarnished term, and cultural diversity, which has gained greater currency though far from universal respect. It considers the inflation of language that occurs where ‘other’ is capitalized and acknowledges the indirect influence of Emmanuel Levinas in this. This has contributed to what I take to be a scepticist distortion of Levinas, especially in the conceptualization of the cultural other. In light of this reservation, attention is turned to the more nuanced account of such a relation that is to be found in the work of Stanley Cavell, especially in his reading of Thoreau’s Walden. Particular attention is given to Cavell’s late essay ‘Walden in Tokyo’, in which a contrast is drawn between Thoreau’s reception of East Asian influences and Heidegger’s encounter with Japanese thought. The discussion points towards the view that a better relation to the other is realized where there is acknowledgement of our own non-transparency, our strangeness or ‘nextness’ to ourselves. In light of this, a different educational approach to cultural diversity is recommended through a reorientation of the curriculum as a whole.