ABSTRACT

Because of a dream, my elderly friend Laxmi Narayan was convinced that his son Prithivi was the reincarnation of his late father. Their apparent contentment in not knowing the other’s ‘inner state’ challenges the assumption that coexistence is achieved through empathic approximations. Rather than strive to bridge the gap through a quasi-first-person perspective, this story suggests that Selves and Others can readily do without empathy in their encounters. Both ‘empathy’ and ‘sympathy’ envisage a very specific way of approaching the other, one which requires otherness to disappear, albeit in different ways. However, the respectful relationships of otherness described in these pages suggest that being-of-the-same-kind is not an essential precondition for being-with-others. This insight undergirds the theorisation of a form of hermeneutic respect crucial to appreciate the articulation of inter-personal and inter-generational relationships in the rapidly changing context of contemporary Nepal.

摘要

因为一个梦，我的老朋友 Laxmi Narayan 确信他的儿子 Prithivi 是他已故父亲的转世。他们对不知道对方“内心状态”的明显满足挑战了共存是通过移情近似实现的假设。这个故事并没有试图通过准第一人称视角来弥合差距，而是表明自我和他人在他们的遭遇中可以在没有同理心的情况下轻松做到。“同理心”和“同情心”都设想了一种非常具体的接近对方的方式，这种方式要求他者消失，尽管方式不同。然而，这些页面中描述的相互尊重的关系表明，同类并不是与他人共处的必要先决条件。