ISSN 0277-7126 The American Journal of Semiotics 28.1– 2 (2012), 105–127. DOI: 10.5840/ajs2012281-28 The Fulcrum Point of Dialogue: Monologue, Worldview, and Acknowledgement Ronald C. Arnett Duquesne University 1. Introduction T hree privileged and related communicative presuppositions shape and buttress this dialogic essay: (1) identity is sculpted by and through the existential reality of difference; (2) petite narratives give rise to differ- ences that propel a monologic demand for worldview acknowledgement; and (3) one’s worldview dwells first in monologue, second in acknowledgement, and third in potential changes as one encounters the worldview of another. In an era described as postmodernity (Lyotard 1984), there resides one fundamental challenge to that which undergirds modernity — rejection of the assumption that there is universal access to Truth through a pristine and transcendental use of rationality. is hope is abandoned by postmodern writers (Lyotard 1984; Derrida 1978), and is even modified in its application by some of the Enlightenment’s most ardent proponents, such as Jürgen Habermas (1962, 1984, 1987). Postmodernity is a juncture with a distinct and unique existential reality defining a shadow cast by one temporally privileged fact — there is no one set of universal assumptions that constitute our communicative lives of understanding ensembles. In postmodernity, we are left with the existential reality of multiple petite narratives that steer discourse quite dissimilarly. Out of a postmodern recognition of the pragmatic necessity to meet, learn from, and negotiate difference, this essay argues for acknowledgement of the importance of monologue that seeks to protect, promote, and demand acknowledgement of petite narrative ground. is thesis is explored in four major sections: Dialogue and Difference in Worldviews, which reviews the