Document Type : Research Paper
Author
member faculty, University of Kashan
Abstract
Researchers in comparative studies believe that the most challenging obstacle facing scholars in this field is, first and foremost, the possibility or impossibility of comparability among different traditions, cultures, and schools of thought. This difficulty is particularly evident in the realm of comparative research in philosophy and theology. Philosophers who have been concerned with comparative explorations in the texts and cultures of ancient philosophical traditions have found themselves confronted with a multitude of terms and vocabulary for which finding equivalents has proven to be a very challenging task. In this essay, by referring to three types of incommensurability—fundamental, evaluative, and linguistic—we will focus on two general approaches regarding the possibility or impossibility of linguistic incommensurability. On one hand, we will reference the views of individuals like Davidson, who defend the comparability and the rejection of incommensurability among different traditions and cultures against those like MacIntyre. On the other hand, we will critique and evaluate these two general approaches. In the issue of linguistic incommensurability, the emphasis is on whether, given the different terms, languages, contexts, and times in which these arise in various cultures, it is still possible to compare the cultures, traditions, and schools of thought that emerge from them.
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