Is there a Paradox of Learning from the Other? Four Questions and a Proposal

A common justification given for comparative political theory (and its cognate concepts) is that we will be morally and epistemically transformed by encounters with our 'others'.1 This is a fully warranted, even crucial, aim for expanded forms of ethical and political theory, and in one sense there is nothing controversial or mysterious at all about this aspiration. It would not be exaggerated to say that all social learning requires an encounter with difference or alterity. Moreover, any other human being can appear to us as our 'other' and present infinite ethical demands.