The experience of starting an activity devoted to dialogue among different cultures leads to an encounter with new words and names (for those who didn’t know them before meeting another culture: Sharia, Ijtihad, Gandhi, Manuel II Paleologist, ayurveda), and new meanings of old words (East, West, provincializing, secularism, civism, laicism, religiousness, European identity, national, Arab, Jewish, Muslim identity, multiple identities, multiculturalism, plural mono-culturalism, solitarism, etc. etc.). As a matter of fact, part of the experience of dialogue is devoted to the preliminary clarification of several meanings, a clarification essential not only for a large educated public but also for the experts.

This situation suggests the idea of capturing the chance presented by the development of a website and the project of intercultural dialogue as embodied in resetdoc.org, an expression of the Foundation Reset Dialogues on Civilizations, and initiating the construction of a lexicon in progress, a lexicon that we will name “The Words of Dialogue” and build into English, Italian, Arabic, and other languages, in the largest way possible. Unequivocal solutions will not always be available, however the comparison among different thesis about the same entry will be, in any case, a reason to clarify dissent, to deepen our analysis, and maybe sometimes to advance proposals capable of resolving equivocations and misunderstandings.

From the central structure, many derivations will branch out, as with a tree and its many branches, each one of which produces other branches and leaves. It will not be an infinite structure but will be permanently updated and enriched. Take for example: secularism and secularization. We will ask our most qualified contributors to develop these entries and to follow the debate unwinding around these concepts. We will ask contributors for single articles: secularization in Europe, in the Arab countries, in Iran, in Israel, in the United States. Another example is that of democracy, its relations with religion, wealth, cultural differences, Indian democracy, the exportation of democracy, etc. etc.

“The Worlds of Dialogue” by Resetdoc will become a place of consultation for students and researchers, a place where, for many, it will be possible to find new ideas and new connections. The purpose of the lexicon is to explore, through the study of key-words of today’s philosophical and cultural debate, the most discussed issues of intercultural dimensions so that all the operators of intercultural dialogue could find helpful support. It will raise questions and facilitate answers for all who work in the fields of society that are more sensitive to the issue, starting from the educational system to the world of politics. The entries won’t be treated as in a common encyclopaedia. What’s more, we don’t have the necessary strength and already there are excellent reference instruments.

The direction of our attention will be selective and will focus on all aspects of social life and intellectual debate involved in the dimension of the relation with the difference, with a particular focus on the capability of thought to build bridges toward dimensions different from the Self, to overcome distance, barriers, and conflicts, to conceive the solution in difficult conditions, to defeat fanaticism, to manage resentment and the way out of chronic war situations.