Living Inquiry: Me, My Self, and Other

Belonging to the world means sharing otherness with every one and every thing there is. Hanna Arendt pointed out the paradox of human plurality: We share the sameness of being human in a way that none of us is the same as another. Still, we lack a human culture that reveres difference, reducing it to a shortfall. Moreover, as worldly beings we 'make home' on Earth and thus inhabit a human-made world of things we consume and use, which dictates our relationship with Earth and non-human entities. The following essay exemplifies Living Inquiry, a course I developed for inquiry into our 'worldliness' that encompasses both how we see the world, given our prejudiced eyes, and phenomena we experience in daily life. I discuss teaching this course with graduate students, inner-city teachers, and young adolescents. As well, I provide an example of such inquiry related to a course theme, self/other