Abstract
This paper will explore an alternative mode of thinking and language for higher education, centering on the idea of “philosophy as translation”—an idea drawn from the American philosopher, Stanley Cavell. This broader sense of translation is inseparable from our reengagement with cultures, language, self and others. From this philosophical perspective, the paper proposes to convert our ways of thinking so that we can re-encounter different cultures as other through a process of border-crossing. It has educational implications in terms of an art of dialogue through which one exposes oneself to the other by releasing oneself and one’s own culture towards the possibility of further growth. This, I shall argue, necessitates us the conversion of the discourse and mode of thinking that pervades the current education for global citizenship, political education and critical thinking in higher education. In conclusion, I shall present the possibilities of a perfectionist education—an idea drawn from Cavell’s Emersonian perfectionism. This is in service of the enhancement of an alternative mode of global and cross-cultural dialogue. We need to tap new human resources for the global citizen—for the individual who will live by taking a chance in uncertainty and who can speak “without bounds.” This I shall conclude to be the fundamental sense of liberal education.
