Communication in the Context of Cultural Diversity

Abstract

I have chosen to speak on the topic of communication in the context of cultural diversity at this international phenomenology congress in Korea because the setting provides a peculiarly appropriate laboratory for thought experiments on the dynamics of communication across cultural perspectives. We are all familiar with the well known couplet penned by Rudyard Kipling: “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” I want to show that this utterance by Kipling is problematic at best and profoundly mistaken at worst.