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Chimisso, Cristina
(2024).
Abstract
In this paper, I present a case study as a contribution towards a reflection on the question of whether the ideas of modernity and progress have depended on the idea of an Other who is not modern. I focus on Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939), and two receptions of his works, due to Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) and Hélène Metzger (1889-1944), respectively. These three scholars similarly argued that there are ways of thinking, or mentalities, that are genuinely different, and that are not phases of a continuous evolution. They also discussed the relationship between rationality and emotions, reaching different conclusions. They ostensibly carried out studies of the mind and proposed theories of knowledge. However, I show that, in doing so, they reached different solutions to the problem of defining modernity. In particular, they differed in the presentation of the Other that is not, or cannot be, modern: whereas Lévy-Bruhl and Bachelard provided ample studies of the Other, Metzger undermined the various constructions of the Other that her contemporaries, including Lévy-Bruhl and Bachelard, offered. Her unusual insight, I argue, was made possible by her standpoint, which she reached thanks to a reflection on her own position in her milieu.