Can we understand each other? Ethics in the times of diversity

Abstract

The main questions of the text are whether persons committed to different values can reach agreement, how they can achieve it, and what kind of ethics can be open to such an agreement if discrimination is to be avoided at the same time. Taking the discussion between R. Rorty and C. Geertz as the starting point, I argue that we should abandon the concepts of ethnocentrism and relativism because they are ambiguous and that the crucial distinction runs between their different meanings. D. T. Meyers’s ethics based on empathy and recognition is a solution to problems of diversity, both intra– and intercultural. It entails a radical change of ethical paradigm: an individualised approach to particular situations instead of general rules. But it can be applied only if the West gives up its claims to universality.