Other

The other or constitutive other is a key concept in continental philosophy, opposed to the same. It refers to that which a person considers to be entirely unrelated to their own concept of their self-identity. more...

As such, a person's definition of the 'Other' is part of what defines or even constitutes the self (see self (psychology), self (philosophy), and self-concept) and other phenomena and cultural units. Lawrence Cahoone explains it thus:

"What appear to be cultural units—human beings, words, meanings, ideas, philosophical systems, social organizations—are maintained in their apparent unity only through an active process of exclusion, opposition, and hierarchization. Other phenomena or units must be represented as foreign or 'other' through representing a hierarchical dualism in which the unit is 'privileged' or favored, and the other is devalued in some way." (Cahoone 1996)

It has been used in social science to understand the processes by which socieites and groups exclude 'Others' who they want to subordinate or who do not fit into their society. For example, Edward Said's book Orientalism shows how this was done by western societies—paticularly England and France—to 'other' those people in the 'Orient' who they wanted to control.

History of the other in philosophy

The concept that the self requires the other to define itself is an old one and has been expressed by many writers:

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