Etikens Pathos: En undersökning av begärsbegreppet i Emmanuel Levinas Totalitet och oändlighet
2019 (Swedish)Independent thesis Basic level (professional degree), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesisAlternative title
Pathos of Ethics : Examining the Concept of Desire in Emmanuel Levinas' Totality and Infinity (English)
Abstract [en]
In this essay, I examine the conception of metaphysical desire as understood by Emmanuel Levinas within his work Totality and Infinity. The main problematic of the work is whether a relationship with an absolute Other, understood as a positive infinity, that is posited beyond the realm of the I, is possible, or whether the totality of the same is inevitable. I present metaphysical desire to the Other as a crucial point in Totality and Infinity, which in its endless-growing hunger beyond satisfaction becomes an infinity within a finite subject, therefore sets up the relationship between the I and the infinite Other, as a concretization of the idea of infinity. In addition, I construe, in the light of the critique of Levinas by Jacques Derrida and other research, an understanding of metaphysical desire as a pathos of ethics that interrupts the spatio-temporality of the same by being a spatio-temporality which opens the I and directs it toward the Other without abolishing their distance. In this neverending movement the egoism of the I is discontinued and peace becomes possible without resulting in totality. Instead, the movement toward the infinite Other is a movement toward an uncharted future, a movement which consists of an infinite dialogue with the Other.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. , p. 52
Keywords [en]
Levinas, Derrida, Ethics, Intersubjectivity, Phenomenology, Desire
Keywords [sv]
Levinas, Derrida, Etik, Intersubjektivitet, Fenomenologi, Begär
National Category
Religious Studies Philosophy Ethics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-47071ISRN: JU-HLK-RKA-1-20190103OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-47071DiVA, id: diva2:1377650
Subject / course
HLK, Religious Studies
2019-12-122019-12-122025-10-13Bibliographically approved