Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 PhD Candidate of Philosophy, University of Tehran
2 Associate Professor of Philosophy Department, University of Tehran
Abstract
Emmanuel Levinas, adopting his peculiar phenomenological approach, views the I's responsibility for the Other as the sole foundation of being ethical, and summons humanity to be aware of its infinite, immediate responsibility. Ethical responsibility can be understood here as every I's receptivity and solicitude towards the Other or those whose presence makes the I's transcendence possible.Responsibility accurately implies the I's passivity from the Other's demand and address. Unlike the subject which exists within Western philosophical tradition, Levinas's ethical subject is not active, automatized and hegemonic! The hegemonic I has always striven to subjugate the Other under a universal, rational totality. Hence, there arises a struggle between the familiar and the non-familiar. To resolve the strong node of this hostility for Levinas is to have the I innately passivatized of the Other. He holds that the passive response to the Other's demand constitutes the sensitivity of human existence.The I's ethical responsibility for the Other discloses a subject's passive structure that has always recognized itself through the profound, active consciousness.
In this paper, Levinas's path to gloss a novel ethical subject by exploiting some unique metaphors like "substitution" and "hostage" –which imply the exaggerative aspect of passivity-, will be sketched out.
Keywords
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