Engaging Reason across Cultures: Where the Limits Might Be

Kirpal Singh (Singapore Management University)

Email: kirpals@smu.edu.sg

 

ABSTRACT:

It is my experience that most human beings do and desire to act rationally. Across a wide spectrum of cultural frames people "converse" and interact with each other given some very basic assumptions about the reasonable way in which most of us behave. Thus I would unhesitatingly ask a stranger for directions, for example, without in the least expecting him / her to turn around and kill me! However, in the globalised economy of today, the very notion and understanding of *reason* is often called into question on account of an insuficient awareness of what *reason* means and entails in different cultures. By using examples from both real and imagined contexts I want to demonstrate just how important it is for us to try as best as possible to know what the "limits" might be when we assume that engagements across cultures are okay so long as these are based on what we presume to be "reasonable".