The Other – Being-With – Reflexivity Thoughts on a Flourishing Exchange Between Europe and China

Abstract Europe’s academic engagement with China has traditionally been shaped by the concept of the “Other”: China was seen as epistemically foreign, morally different, or philosophically Other. This alterity acted as a mirror of the Self – for reassurance, frustration, or relativization of European rationality. Recently, these epistemic frameworks have been challenged by new ideas like “entanglement,” “being-with,” and “resonance.” This essay traces this epistemological change through three key perspectives: Jullien’s idea of strategic alterization, Billeter’s hermeneutic intersubjectivity, and Heubel’s reflexive co-philosophy. Collectively, they reveal a range of dialogical development – from recognition through difference via shared worldliness to transcultural self-alienation. A key argument in this contribution is that epistemic difference cannot be resolved through harmonization but should be understood as a productive tension. This is illustrated by comparing classical European humoral pathology with the equally classical Chinese Wuxing principles. Both models use holistic ordering principles, yet they differ fundamentally in their ontological structures. This difference is neither deficient nor insurmountable; it highlights different but equivalent ways of understanding the world. Within this tension – supported by Rudyak’s idea of “strategic empathy” - lies the potential for a new dialogue: no longer between the Self and the Foreign, but in the In-Between, where understanding grows through resonance rather than dominance. This contribution – supported throughout by methodological reflections and practical recommendations – advocates a fundamental, lived attitude of strategic empathy and epistemic humility as the basis for a sustainable and mature scholarly dialogue between Europe and China, and indeed for dialogue between China and Europe more generally.