Levinas: Jenkin's/class definitions

Question 1

The Other

Answer 1

a) It is positive
b) Bifurcated, two in one: Master on high who commands me/I, the law; The stranger/widow/orphan who begs/supplicates me/I.

Question 2

Idea of Infinity

Answer 2

Thinking of the Other makes me contain more than I can hold. Signals a valorization in Levinas’s work of metaphysics over ontology.

Question 3

I/me

Answer 3

I am always the “me”, the responsible one; I always owe more

Question 4

Relationship with the Other

Answer 4

I owe everything to the other. The existence of the I/me is predicated on the sacrifice/pain of the Other.

Question 5

Metaphysics

Answer 5

The essence of philosophy because it is about what is beyond

Question 6

Curvature of Interpersonal Space

Answer 6

The gravitational pull of the Other; the same pull keeps us from ever being on the same plane as the Other.

Question 7

Desire

Answer 7

Paradoxical; Desire for what is missing: not a plenitude, an infinity
Ex. Juliet’s “I long but for the thing I have” (?)

Question 8

Reciprocity

Answer 8

Does not exist in the relationship between the self/I/me and the Other

Question 9

Ethics

Answer 9

The face-to-face relation to the Other

Question 10

Face

Answer 10

Both noun and verb form: to face the Other, to face your responsibility to the Other

Question 11

Obligation

Answer 11

Not a duty, but the tie to the Other

Question 12

Asymmetric

Answer 12

Formation of relationship to the Other

Question 13

Diaconate

Answer 13

Office of the deacon

Question 14

Saying…

Answer 14

Is not a game