Can “Living Together” Be Taught?

The need to teach how to “live together” demonstrates its problematic nature. Indeed, is not living together problematic because it implies that we must by all means coexist, self and other, that is to say, to “live together” despite difference? Is it really possible to bring about a respect for this injunction through education? Two pitfalls are to be avoided. On one hand, that of an hermeneutical approach to education, which may violate the principle of respect for otherness even as it purports to teach it. On the other hand, that of considering ethics simply as total openness to difference. Between these two pitfalls is a difficult path to negotiate, that of a responsibility to educational choices inevitably bound to betray the Other.