A Cartographic Approach to pragmatics in the mood of the ‘respectful silence’1

This essay presupposes, due to unavoidable theoretical necessities, some definitions of a stipulative nature. These are fundamental, on the one hand, to identify the interdisciplinary framework in which we are working. On the other hand, they are essential in order to define the terms of a form of embedded analysis. By this we mean a contextual analysis from a hermeneutic viewpoint within the same framework of cognitive reference and scientific investigation. This context can only be the ‘Occident’, a term indicating a categorial, symbolical and historical constellation to be declined very much in the plural (the same also applying, clearly, to the ‘Orient’). Firstly, we shall establish, through the lens of some appropriate disciplines, a minimal clarification of the main concepts at issue – pragmatics, alterity, identity, asymmetry, cartography - and, by means of these, render the context more explicit (Chapter I). Then we shall move on to present the outline of a philosophical method, of a reflective-interpretative kind. With this there will be an attempt to put the five terms into practice. This is specifically with the aim of strictly defining the social and political challenges as regards a non-violent co-existence within the ‘European’ Occident (particularly in Chapters II and III), with the help of a renewed hermeneutical kit of tools (IV).