ONESELF AS ANOTHER: THE BENGAL RENAISSANCE THINKER IN A DIALOGUE WITH THE WEST T.G. Skorokhodova Theory and Practice of Social Work Department Pedagogical Institute named after V.G. Belinsky Penza State University Krasnaya str., 40, Penza, Russia, 440026 Personal peculiarities of Eastern subjects of dialogue with the West are described in the paper based on Paul Ricoeur’s conception of “Oneself as Another” (“Soi-mкme comme un autre”) On the example of the Bengal Renaissance thinkers (XIX — early XX century) from new intellectual elite are demonstrated otherness and identity of their personal positions. <...> They are Others both for their own Indian social-cultural surroundings and for Western subjects of inter-cultural dialogue. <...> Otherness along with Indian identity had determined the specific role and works by Bengal thinkers in dialogue with the West. <...> Key words: Ricoeur, “Oneself as Another”, the Bengal Renaissance, problematic thinker, understanding of Other, dialogue with the West. <...> This dialogue has generated in the Eastern countries specific sociocultural processes, which can be conditionally described as national-cultural renaissances. <...> I think, the conception “Soi-mкme comme un autre” (“Oneself as Another”) by Paul Ricoeur is methodologically productive in this sense. <...> This personality is seriously different from personality in traditional society. <...> I propose to depict the subject of dialogue in Indian material, viz. on the example of thinkers of the Bengal Renaissance XIX — early XX century. <...> The main subject of dialogue with the West is ‘problematic thinker’ (M. Buber). <...> After establishing of British colonial rule in Bengal, the Challenge of Western civilization questioned stability and self-regulating existence of traditional society. <...> Problematic thinkers appeared in new Bengal elites, which had intercourse with new power, but both didn’t change their sociocultural identity and liberated from rigid group enforcement, traditional norms and notions of their society. <...> These thinkers were formed most active part in new elite (bhadralok), which is ‘creative minority’ (A. Bergson) in epoch of the Bengal Renaissance [2. <...> P. 280]. 78 Skorokhodova T.G. Oneself as Another: the Bengal Renaissance thinker in a dialogue with the West Bengal problematic thinker puts many questions, and answers to principally new question in traditional thinking paradigm are unacceptable for him. <...> Problematic thinker, on the one <...>