Text

Essential Vulnerabilities: Plato And Levinas On Relations To The Other

---

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. Instead, Plato, like Levinas, is a philosopher of the other. Nonetheless, Achtenberg argues, Plato and Levinas are different. Though they share the view that human beings are essentially vulnerable and essentially in relation to others, they conceive human vulnerability and responsiveness differently. For Plato, when we see beautiful others, we are overwhelmed by the beauty of what is, by the vision of eternal form. For Levinas, we are disrupted by the newness, foreignness, or singularity of the other. The other, for him, is new or foreign, not eternal. The other is unknowable singularity. By showing 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.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

-

Call Number

-

Publisher

: ., 2016

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9780810129948

Classification

NONE

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

-

Subject(s)

Ethics & Moral Philosophy

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

Deborah Achtenberg

Other Information

Cataloger

Jemadi

Source

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment