Yin/Yang Principle and the Relevance of Externalism and Paralogic Rhetoric to Intercultural Communication

Abstract

Is understanding that transcends language and cultural barriers at all possible? How can we account for the different sorts of failure in achieving intercultural understanding and cooperation? What theory would describe how we can go beyond cross-cultural differences and reach some mutual agreement on business principles and practices? This article explores the relevance of Donald Davidson's philosophy of externalism and Thomas Kent's rhetorical theory of paralogic hermeneutics to these pressing issues in intercultural communication. Using a cultural perspective based on the Taoist yin/yang principle, it explains how an understanding of the externalist conception of truth and the world, and paralogic rhetoric as a theory of communicative interaction, can better enable us to deal with the radical changes taking place in the nature of intercultural relations and communication.

International communication in a technology services call centre in India

“…He found in a study of professional interaction between Israeli and Indian business people that ‘local discourse systems are found to play a major role in interactions, and participants are seen occasionally to adapt their communication behavior to reflect the discourse practices of their partners’ (Zaidman : 409). This perspective leads us to other literature about cultural identity in workplace settings (Yuen ; Lovitt ; Spencer‐Oatey ; Varner and Beamer ; Jameson ) and provides more frameworks for exploring what cultural ‘accommodation’ may mean in a business or professional setting where the interlocutors are international speakers of English. This also builds on Jenkins's () notion of socio‐pragmatic competency discussed earlier.…”

Ambicultural blending between Eastern and Western paradigms: Fresh perspectives for international management research

“…Western managers and researchers may receive valuable inspiration for dealing with the ever increasing complexity of global political, economic and social environments from the Asian embodied, holistic, intuitive way of thinking (Kainzbauer 2010) because a holistic, intuitive awareness of dynamic realities seems to have distinctive advantages in dealing with complex situations (Dijksterhuis 2004, Patton 2003. Eastern paradoxical dualism has already begun to be explored in strategy (Mintzberg 2001;Chen 2002), communication theory (Cheng 1987;Yuan 1997) and knowledge management (Chae and Bloodgood 2006). This is complementary to an increasing interest in management studies of promoting 'wisdom' (Weick 2001) and the importance of complexity and Post-Cartesian, paradoxical approaches (Cameron and Quinn 1988;Clegg, Cunha, and Cunha 2002;Denison, Hoojiberg, and Quinn 1995;Eisenhardt 2000;Lewis 2000; Van de Ven and Poole 1988).…”

Teaching Intercultural Communication in a Basic Technical Writing Course: A Survey of Our Current Practices and Methods

“…Weiss [5,7] offers another approach to intercultural teaching (also see Yuan [6]). In the early 90s, Weiss was concerned about "the sell-job metaphor" in intercultural teaching that was prevalent in technical writing textbooks [5, p. 25], which follows the rule: know how "they" communicate, think about their attitude toward you and your product, and structure your messages accordingly.…”

“…) and the dialogic approach (Weiss, T., 1992(Weiss, T., , 1993Yuan, 1997). The two pedagogical perspectives seem to be based on different paradigms (positivism vs. social constructivism) that govern intercultural pedagogy in technical writing courses nowadays and are reflected in some ways in current textbooks.…”