The Philosophy of Difference: Questions and Stakes

Abstract

The philosophy of difference has sought to give renewed attention to marginalized themes that the logos excluded during the modern period, especially myth, or mythos. Human beings long believed that they could master their reality and their lives through reason. Reason thus became the principal foundation of hegemony. Under this monistic view, modern philosophy moved away from the principles and values it had sought to realize. Contemporary philosophies therefore sought to reorient their discourses. They moved from the absolute to the relative, from the self to the collective "we", and from centrism to openness and plurality.