The Real Other Beyond the Other

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between the real other and the other. My central claim is that the term “other” conveys the concealment and exclusion of the real other. To substantiate this claim, I will draw a distinction between two types of discourse—one political and one ontological—wherein the term other plays a role. Although the term will be shown to have different denotations in each of these two types of discourse, both exclude the real other. My conceptual analysis, I will argue, offers a path for ethical, political, and social amendment, bringing back the real other from hiddenness and exclusion.