Intercultural pragmatics and the clash of civilizations: Western and Muslim interactions before and since 9/11
-
Anne Reboul
Anne Reboul Rhétorique et stylistique de la fiction (1992) and, with Jacques Moeschler, ofDictionnaire encyclopédique de pragmatique (1994),La Pragmatique aujourd'hui (1998), andPragmatique du discours (1998), as well as many papers in French and English.
Abstract
This paper is concerned with what is too often seen as the inevitable clash of civilizations between Western and Muslim peoples and nations. I argue against Quine's pessimistic conclusions regarding radical translation and in favor of Davidson's principle of charity, according to which communication can only be possible when each communicator takes the other party to be rational. I argue against the view that Muslims, including Muslim terrorists, are of necessity irrational, plead for a more charitable approach to their views of the relations between the West and Islam, criticize Huntington's view on the so-called clash of civilizations, and reject the notion of it as an unavoidable event. I then point out that other ways of dealing with the problem of Muslim terrorism are possible, ways that take into account the public opinion in the Muslim countries rather than relying on sheer force. From that point of view, I advocate a policy based on the Prisoner's Dilemma solution to the promotion of cooperation.
About the author
Anne Reboul has a Ph.D. in linguistics (EHESS, Paris) and a Ph.D. in philosophy (University of Geneva). She defended a HDR (habilitation) thesis at the University of Strasbourg. After a post-doctoral fellowship at UCL London (1984–86) and a grant from the Swiss National Scientific Foundation (1986–93), she entered Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in 1993 (Loria, Nancy). She is now Head of the Pragmatics and Cognition research team at the Institute for Cognitive Sciences, Lyon. She is the author of Rhétorique et stylistique de la fiction (1992) and, with Jacques Moeschler, of Dictionnaire encyclopédique de pragmatique (1994), La Pragmatique aujourd'hui (1998), and Pragmatique du discours (1998), as well as many papers in French and English.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Foreword
- The French tradition in pragmatics: From structuralism to cognitivism
- Pragmatic inference and argumentation in intercultural communication
- Intercultural aspects of the speech act of promising: Western and African practices
- Intercultural pragmatics and the clash of civilizations: Western and Muslim interactions before and since 9/11
- Dealing with contradiction in a communicative context: A cross-cultural study
- Contributors to this issue
Articles in the same Issue
- Foreword
- The French tradition in pragmatics: From structuralism to cognitivism
- Pragmatic inference and argumentation in intercultural communication
- Intercultural aspects of the speech act of promising: Western and African practices
- Intercultural pragmatics and the clash of civilizations: Western and Muslim interactions before and since 9/11
- Dealing with contradiction in a communicative context: A cross-cultural study
- Contributors to this issue
