Thinking In The World of Plurality: Project of Transversal Reason by W. Welsh.

Abstract

The modern era’s spirit can be described in terms of pluralism, interweaving and chaos. How can thinking be possible in a situation of permanent processuality and contingency escaping from fixation in disciplinary orders of paradigms and rationalities? Can the new universality of philosophy be possible in the conditions of producing the differences and the formation of heterogeneous systems in all fields and at all levels of social being? The new horizons for building intelligent strategies open in the concepts of transversal thinking.
The main ideas of W. Welsch’s project of transversal reason and universal philosophy are examined  in the paper. The author analyzes the contradiction between universalist pattern of philosophy and its cultural matrix, which can be dissolved on the basis of the model proposed by Welsch as relevant in terms of transculturality. The congruence of transcultural and transversal perspectives in the context of globalization, forming heterogeneous space of communications, overcoming boundaries and limits is shown. This fact forms the ontological need for transversal reason that is able in the conditions of further differentiation of the rationalities to transit between them, without reducing the differences but claiming them. The methodological importance and the new meaning of reflection in the implementation of transversal crossings are emphasized. The possibilities of the development of transversal reason in the digital networks of the information society are shown. Welsch’s concept of transversal reason forms pragmatics of our actions in all spheres of public life, representing a multidimensional reality of networks, and also offers the new opportunities for the becoming of a transversal philosophy as a truly universal and relevant one in an era of plurality.