A Study of Alterity and Ethics in Emmanuel Levinas

Abstract

Ethics matters in this contemporary world because humanity has been extremely isolated and easily exposed to the violence. Unless humanity finds a way to overcome this situation, he or she cannot live happily even though the materialism seems to guarantee humanity to live prosperously. With this sense, this research delves into the meaning of ethics, as it focuses on Levinas’appreciation on alterity and responsibility. Most of all, this study demonstrates how Levinas discovers the phenomenality of the face of the Other, how he criticizes on the limitation of Western ontology, and what he argues about ethical responsibility. In Levinas, the face of the Other has the religious implication in that it reveals itself as the form of the Infinite as it makes the I respond on the appeal of the face. This unconditional request helps humanity acknowledge his or her own ethical responsibility on the human predicaments in this contemporary violent world. Based on this acknowledgement, this study tries to grasp the significance of ethics in order for humanity to foster the capability of sympathy on the predicaments of beings.