Tanja Staehler

Plato and Levinas (eBook, PDF)

The Ambiguous Out-Side of Ethics

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

In the second half of the twentieth century, ethics has gained considerable prominence within philosophy. In contrast to other scholars, Levinas proposed that it be not one philosophical discipline among many, but the most fundamental and essential one. Before philosophy became divided into disciplines, Plato also treated the question of the Good as the most important philosophical question.

Levinas's approach to ethics begins in the encounter with the other as the most basic experience of responsibility. He acknowledges the necessity to move beyond this initial, dyadic encounter, but has problems extending his approach to a larger dimension, such as community. To shed light on this dilemma, Tanja Staehler examines broader dimensions which are linked to the political realm, and the problems they pose for ethics.

Staehler demonstrates that both Plato and Levinas come to identify three realms as ambiguous: the erotic, the artistic, and the political. In each case, there is a precarious position in relation to ethics. However, neither Plato nor Levinas explores ambiguity in itself. Staehler argues that these ambiguous dimensions can contribute to revealing the Other's vulnerability without diminishing the fundamental role of unambiguous ethical responsibility.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis eBooks
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Erscheinungstermin: 11. September 2009
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781135214012
• Artikelnr.: 43074116

Autorenporträt

Dr. Tanja Staehler is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sussex.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction a) The Central Question b) Plato's Phaedrus c) Levinas's Two
Main Works d) Levinas on Plato e) Methodological Remarks f) Before Culture
Part I: The Self Chapter 1: Preliminary Reflections on the Self a)
Interiority and the Myth of Gyges b) Otherness in the Same Chapter 2:
Dimensions of Corporeality a) Levinas and the Body as Vulnerability b) The
Body in Plato's Phaedrus Chapter 3: Enjoyment or Suffering? Modes of
Sensibility a) The permanent truth of hedonist moralities b) Pleasure,
Pain, and Vulnerability Part II: The Other Chapter 4: Origins of Speech a)
Speech as Apology b) Socratic and Levinasian Teaching Chapter 5: The
Ambiguity of Eros a) Levinas about Eros between Being and Non-Being b)
Plato on Beauty and Wings c) The Place of Eros Chapter 6: The Ethical
Relationship a) The Paradox of Ethical Resistance b) An Infinite
Responsibility c) Getting under the Skin Part III: The Others Chapter 7:
The Universality of the Good a) Levinas and Universal Humanism b) Plato and
the Good beyond Being Chapter 8: Communities, Politics, Laws a) Plato on
the Advantages and Disadvantages of Law b) Levinas and the Political
Calculus Part IV: Historical-Cultural Worlds Chapter 9: The Critique of
Writing a) Writing Versus Speech b) The Saying and the Said Chapter 10: The
Ambiguity of the Aesthetic a) Images and Shadows b) The Irresponsibility of
Art c) The Work and Tyranny Chapter 11: History and Culture a) Between Past
and Future b) Levinas and the Stranger c) Philosophers and Strangers in
Plato Chapter 12: Concluding Remarks on Ethics and Ambiguity a) Univocal
Ethics? b) Ambiguity in de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas c)
Attempting a Genealogy of Ambiguity d) Plato's Contribution