Abstract: With the intensification of global interconnectedness, the world today is featured by a tendency involving both multi-cultural hybridization and the clash of civilizations, leading to a global field with increasing tension. In the age of global mélange, homogenization has established itself as a major force blocking and even burying cultural diversities, whereas the clash of civilizations generated by Western universalism, in the meantime, has become the greatest threat jeopardizing global stability. Fran?ois Jullien elaborates in De l’universel on the three core concepts of the universal (l’universel), the uniform (l’uniforme) and the common (le commun) and their relationships. He criticizes the rigid and stereotyped uniform and hegemonic universalism while advocating “the common” based on the doctrine of “the divergence of thoughts and the dialogism of the mind” which is the ideal direction for the multicultural coexistence and progress. Based on this, he upholds the dialogic construction based upon intelligibility and communicability between cultures. Jullien’s philosophical ideas have provided us with many inspirations. Cultural communication between China and the West should shift from the one-way borrowing model in modern history to the two-way exchange model today and both sides should learn from each other’s “impensé” to set off its weaknesses. The similar strategy could also be applied to reexamine the Chinese culture and affairs from outside (dehors) in today’s globalized and contextualized world, with an ambition to reconstruct Chinese cultural discourse and achieve “common” cultural ideals through the approach of dialogism.

Key words: globalization, the intelligible community, East-West dialogue, De l’universel, Fran?ois Jullien