The other: from the logic of the gap to the culture of the encounter

Abstract

Our societies are now all colored by existential and cultural diversity, where there are daily
experiences of meeting/clashing with people we indicate as discards, others or foreigners
that lead everyone to live in a world full of pitfalls and risks, but which can certainly be
transformed into chances and opportunities.
But who is the other? How can we establish a relationship with the face of the other? How
can we facilitate the encounter with the other?
To respond to the urgency of such questions, we need to follow a path that generates an
attitude of closeness, of profound openness and solidarity that allows us to approach the
other, to prepare ourselves for the encounter and knowledge of the other, through an authentic
relationship that must be based on attitudes of closeness, acceptance, listening,
availability, empathy, establishing a communion of common feeling and generating a
sense of belonging and mutual recognition.