California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: March 31, 2001
Latest update: April 4, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

"Alterity" is not in the Merriam-Webster College Dictionary online. Where to go? Check the Vocabulary Index and the Concept Index on the Dear Habermas Site. You will find "alterity" in the Vocabulary Index, but not in the Concept Index. That is because I am in the process of merging the Concept Index with the Vocabulary Index. So until that is completed (probably mid-April, 2001), you'll have to access both files. Sorry.

But maybe what we have put up under "alterity" is not clear enough. You'd like further examples or explanations. Then go to Vocabulary Index, where you will find,under the Dear Habermas logo, a link to Dictionaries. TR Young's Dictionary of Critical Social Science on Progressive Sociologists Net. You will not find "alterity." That's a clue that "alterity" is jargon in a special discipline that TR doesn't include here. It appears in Postcolonial Studies, in Cultural Studies. So you need to find a dictionary that includes those fields.

Let's try philosophy first. Philosophy of Mind Dictionary A search on "alterity" yielded no results.

So let's try Meta-Encyclopedia of Philosophy Compares several dictionaries. But no entry for "alterity."

Since we know Spivak uses the term (Well, I know.) let's try searching for "dictionary" and "postcolonial studies."

Hey, it's an esoteric word. We'll find it.

Then go to Euralex: Resources - Corpora and Dictionaries This is where I found foreign language dictionaries online. English - Spanish. French, German. Many more! But guess what? When I tried them most of the links didn't work! The Internet is in its adolescence. You'll have to be patient with it. But don't give up. Someday . . .