The Face of the Other in Emmanuel Levinas and Alexey Uhktomsky
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 4
Abstract
The author compares ethical concepts of a Russian physiologist and philosopher Alexey A. Ukhtomsky and a French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Both use the word “face” as a philosophical term. The paper examines the “face” as a key image in the work of both authors which helped them understand the meaning of dialogue and social interaction. The fact that the Russian word “litzo” (“face”) has two different meanings (a “person” and a “human face”) was very important for Ukhtomsky. For the better understanding of Levinas, it is necessary to take in account the interaction of Russian, Hebrew, and French languages as part of the linguistic consciousness of this author. Both philosophers considered ethics to be philosophia prima. The encounter with the face of the Other is the central event in the personality development for both Levinas and Ukhtomsky. For Levinas, the study of the face was a way to transcend the limits of phenomenology because the face is not a “common” phenomenon. For Ukhtomsky, the image of the face pointed at the problematic character of sciences. It was part of his search for the non-theoretical knowledge, e. g. knowledge that accounts not only for the universal but also for the individual and is capable of describing not only impersonal structures and objects but also individual and unique events. Both thinkers thus were seeking to reconsider religious tradition in the context of contemporary science and philosophy. Ukhtomsky arrives at the idea of asymmetrical relationship between the “I” and the “Other” independently of Levinas. Whereas Levinas describes the experience of the encounter with the Other as a kind of epiphany, Ukhtomsky calls God “the First and the Ultimate Interlocutor.” The encounter with the Other for both philosophers is, namely, a mundane, everyday analogue of the Revelation.
Authors and Affiliations
Alexey N. Belarev
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26183
- DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2017-2-4-30-43
- Views 309
- Downloads 16
YESENIN’S DRAWINGS AS PART OF THE “REAL” COMMENTARY TO HIS WORKS
For the first time, the paper discusses the drawings by Yesenin in his article “Mary’s Keys” (1918) and on the margins of the autograph of the dramatic poem Pugachev (1921) considering them as part of the commentary on...
Stylistic Originality of Spenser’s Epithalamion and its Reflection in Russian and Chinese Translations
Contemporary notion of style as a set of rules that allows the author choose and combine the elements of content and form when producing a literary work (V.V. Vinogradov, A.N. Sokolov et al.) was in many respects prefi...
LE PARADOXE DU CRITIQUE D’ART: LA TENSION ENTRE PATHÉTIQUE ET IRONIE DEVANT LES TABLEAUX TOUCHANTS [PARADOX AS THE CRITIQUE OF ART: TENSION BETWEEN PATHOS AND IRONY OF THE “TOUCHING” PAINTINGS]
In his Salons, Denis Diderot pays special attention to “touching,” pathetic paintings, and his interest to J.-B. Greuze’s art is evidence to that. When Diderot turns to describe Greuze’s canvases or genre painting of J...
CHAPTERS FROM PUSHKIN’S NOVEL. CULTIC MECHANISMS AND TEXTUAL POETICS OF “THE LAST TEXT” AND THE SWORD OF “THE SENSITIVE NOBLEMAN” BY ANDREY BITOV
This study aims to trace and demonstrate the construction of Pushkin cult in two essays by Andrey Bitov, “The Last Text” and “The Sword of the Sensitive Nobleman.” It examines how cultic mechanisms including specific r...
The Dutch Connection: Johanna van der Meulen’s Contribution to Russian Symbolism
The Symbolist Ėllis’ (Lev Kobylinskij) writings during his Moscow period emphasize the split, the division and dichotomy between material reality and celestial vision. His works written in exile in Locarno-Monti in Switz...