The modern world as a challenge to interculturality

Abstract

Why is the modern world a challenge for inter-culturality and especially for intercultural philos-ophy? The discussion of this question is the focus of the article which is aimed at proposing some possible answers to it. This task is solved by considering three thematic blocks. They also form the three sections of the article. 1) What do we refer to when we speak of the “modern world”? First of all, we mean a construction of hegemonic power, the result of the development of European civilization. The author identifies the following preconditions of modernity: socio-political, ontological, anthropological-theo-logical, idolatrous anthropocentrism, historio-sophical (historical-theological), technological, and epistemological. 2) To what extent is the “modern world” a challenge for intercultural interaction and intercultural philosophy? Analyz-ing the cultural and historical reasons for the rejection of the idea of interculturalism nowa-days, the author points out, firstly, the tradition-ally rooted Eurocentrism of the “modern world” (this world does not belong to all mankind, not all human cultures participate equally in the for-mation and development of the modern world), secondly, the fact that the hegemony of capital is now joining the European / North American hegemony. 3) What can intercultural philosophy do to resist the dictates of the modern world? The author determines the tasks of intercultural philosophy as follows: criticism of the hegemon-ic (eurocentric) interpretation of the world; the search for theoretical and practical ways of a truly humanistic communication between differ-ent cultures; the struggle for freedom and cultur-al diversity. He concludes that the challenges of the “modern world” should be regarded as those to our own being, our understanding of humani-ty.