The Suspension of Affirmation
1998 Volume 1998 Issue 49 Pages 29-42
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1998 Volume 1998 Issue 49 Pages 29-42
When we talk of the dignity or sanctity of 'human being', we often regard this as a superrelative community of 'us'. In this sense 'human being' is an effect of our thinking normally characterized as 'assimilation' or 'appropriation'. But in this ideal community each individual is regarded as a reciprocal-interchange able member of 'us'. But the substituion of us for one another is, as E. Levinas in his Totalité et infini says, the 'original irrespect'. The dignity of 'human being' should be, on the contrary, searched for in a singular being of each individual. But can we really give a sufficient basis to it in this direction?
