Essential Vulnerabilities : Plato and Levinas on Relations to the Other PDF
by Achtenberg Deborah Achtenberg
Part of the Rereading Ancient Philosophy series
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Description
In Essential Vulnerabilities, Deborah Achtenberg contests Emmanuel Levinas’s idea that Plato is a philosopher of freedom for whom thought is a return to the self. To the contrary, she agrees, Plato, like Levinas, is a philosopher of the other. While they share the view that human beings are essentially vulnerable and in relation to others, they conceive human vulnerability and responsiveness differently.
For Plato, when ones see beauty in others, one is overwhelmed by the beauty of what is, by the vision of eternal form. For Levinas, on the other hand, we are disrupted by the newness, foreignness, or singularity of the other. For him, the other is not eternal, but new or foreign. The other is an unknowable singularity. By bringing into focus these similarities and differences, Achtenberg resituates Plato in relation to Levinas and opens up two contrasting ways that self is essentially in relation to others.
For Plato, when ones see beauty in others, one is overwhelmed by the beauty of what is, by the vision of eternal form. For Levinas, on the other hand, we are disrupted by the newness, foreignness, or singularity of the other. For him, the other is not eternal, but new or foreign. The other is an unknowable singularity. By bringing into focus these similarities and differences, Achtenberg resituates Plato in relation to Levinas and opens up two contrasting ways that self is essentially in relation to others.
Information
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Download - Immediately Available
- Format:PDF
- Pages:216 pages
- Publisher:Northwestern University Press
- Publication Date:30/06/2014
- Category:
- ISBN:9780810167827
Information
-
Download - Immediately Available
- Format:PDF
- Pages:216 pages
- Publisher:Northwestern University Press
- Publication Date:30/06/2014
- Category:
- ISBN:9780810167827
