DE Weekly: Heidegger, Dostoevsky, & Authentic Being-for-Others
Over the past two weeks, I’ve written about the various writings and opinions of Existentialist authors who gave us a foundation for what could be called “existential ethics.”
Two weeks ago, I wrote about Emmanuel Levinas, who opined that we should treat ethics as “first philosophy,” meaning fundamentally underpinning our philosophy should be the obligation of ethical responsibility.
DE Weekly: Values, Moral Relativism, & Existential Ethics
Last week, I introduced Emmanuel Levinas, the twentieth-century French philosopher who posited ethics as “first philosophy.” To him, this meant that the force fundamentally underpinning all of philosophy is our ethical responsibility.
Before anything else, Levinas argued, we are first of all called into existence to be unconditionally obligated to serve others. Our first act as a Self, then, should be to consider the Other.