5,036 research outputs found

    Comedians without a Cause: The Politics and Aesthetics of Humour in Dutch Cabaret (1966-2020)

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    Comedians play an important role in society and public debate. While comedians have been considered important cultural critics for quite some time, comedy has acquired a new social and political significance in recent years, with humour taking centre stage in political and social debates around issues of identity, social justice, and freedom of speech. To understand the shifting meanings and political implications of humour within a Dutch context, this PhD thesis examines the political and aesthetic workings of humour in the highly popular Dutch cabaret genre, focusing on cabaret performances from the 1960s to the present. The central questions of the thesis are: how do comedians use humour to deliver social critique, and how does their humour resonate with political ideologies? These questions are answered by adopting a cultural studies approach to humour, which is used to analyse Dutch cabaret performances, and by studying related materials such as reviews and media interviews with comedians. This thesis shows that, from the 1960s onwards, Dutch comedians have been considered ‘progressive rebels’ – politically engaged, subversive, and carrying a left-wing political agenda – but that this image is in need of correction. While we tend to look for progressive political messages in the work of comedians who present themselves as being anti-establishment rebels – such as Youp van ‘t Hek, Hans Teeuwen, and Theo Maassen – this thesis demonstrates that their transgressive and provocative humour tends to protect social hierarchies and relationships of power. Moreover, it shows that, paradoxically, both the deliberately moderate and nuanced humour of Wim Kan and Claudia de Breij, and the seemingly past-oriented nostalgia of Alex Klaasen, are more radical and progressive than the transgressive humour of van ‘t Hek, Teeuwen and Maassen. Finally, comedians who present absurdist or deconstructionist forms of humour, such as the early student cabarets, Freek de Jonge, and Micha Wertheim, tend to disassociate themselves from an explicit political engagement. By challenging the dominant image of the Dutch comedian as a ‘progressive rebel,’ this thesis contributes to a better understanding of humour in the present cultural moment, in which humour is often either not taken seriously, or one-sidedly celebrated as being merely pleasurable, innocent, or progressively liberating. In so doing, this thesis concludes, the ‘dark’ and more conservative sides of humour tend to get obscured

    A Decision Support System for Economic Viability and Environmental Impact Assessment of Vertical Farms

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    Vertical farming (VF) is the practice of growing crops or animals using the vertical dimension via multi-tier racks or vertically inclined surfaces. In this thesis, I focus on the emerging industry of plant-specific VF. Vertical plant farming (VPF) is a promising and relatively novel practice that can be conducted in buildings with environmental control and artificial lighting. However, the nascent sector has experienced challenges in economic viability, standardisation, and environmental sustainability. Practitioners and academics call for a comprehensive financial analysis of VPF, but efforts are stifled by a lack of valid and available data. A review of economic estimation and horticultural software identifies a need for a decision support system (DSS) that facilitates risk-empowered business planning for vertical farmers. This thesis proposes an open-source DSS framework to evaluate business sustainability through financial risk and environmental impact assessments. Data from the literature, alongside lessons learned from industry practitioners, would be centralised in the proposed DSS using imprecise data techniques. These techniques have been applied in engineering but are seldom used in financial forecasting. This could benefit complex sectors which only have scarce data to predict business viability. To begin the execution of the DSS framework, VPF practitioners were interviewed using a mixed-methods approach. Learnings from over 19 shuttered and operational VPF projects provide insights into the barriers inhibiting scalability and identifying risks to form a risk taxonomy. Labour was the most commonly reported top challenge. Therefore, research was conducted to explore lean principles to improve productivity. A probabilistic model representing a spectrum of variables and their associated uncertainty was built according to the DSS framework to evaluate the financial risk for VF projects. This enabled flexible computation without precise production or financial data to improve economic estimation accuracy. The model assessed two VPF cases (one in the UK and another in Japan), demonstrating the first risk and uncertainty quantification of VPF business models in the literature. The results highlighted measures to improve economic viability and the viability of the UK and Japan case. The environmental impact assessment model was developed, allowing VPF operators to evaluate their carbon footprint compared to traditional agriculture using life-cycle assessment. I explore strategies for net-zero carbon production through sensitivity analysis. Renewable energies, especially solar, geothermal, and tidal power, show promise for reducing the carbon emissions of indoor VPF. Results show that renewably-powered VPF can reduce carbon emissions compared to field-based agriculture when considering the land-use change. The drivers for DSS adoption have been researched, showing a pathway of compliance and design thinking to overcome the ‘problem of implementation’ and enable commercialisation. Further work is suggested to standardise VF equipment, collect benchmarking data, and characterise risks. This work will reduce risk and uncertainty and accelerate the sector’s emergence

    Beyond invisibility: The position and role of the literary translator in the digital paratextual space

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    This thesis presents a new theoretical framework through which to analyse the visibility of literary translators in the digital materials that present translations to readers, referred to throughout as paratextual spaces. Central to this model is the argument that paratextual ‘visibility’ must be understood as including both the way translators and their labour are presented to readers, defined here as their position, and also their role in the establishment of that position. Going beyond Lawrence Venuti’s concept of invisibility as an inevitably negative position to be fought against, this thesis instead establishes paratextual visibility as a complex negotiation between the agency of individual translators, the needs of a publishing house and the interests of readers. The value of this approach is demonstrated through a case study examining the visibility of translator Jamie Bulloch in the digital spaces surrounding his English-language translations of two novels by German author Timur Vermes: Look Who’s Back and The Hungry and the Fat. This analysis finds that even though Bulloch played an early role in creating the publisher’s paratextual materials, publisher MacLehose Press prioritised making the novels’ German origins and the foreignness of the texts visible over Bulloch’s status as the translator, or his translatorship. Bulloch’s limited visibility in the publisher-created materials was then reproduced in digital paratexts created by readers and third parties such as retailer Amazon, despite his attempts to interact with readers and perform his translatorship in digital spaces such as Twitter. Rather than challenging Bulloch’s limited visibility, then, digital spaces served to amplify it. This thesis therefore finds that the translator’s active participation in the promotion of their work does not always equate to increased visibility, thus demonstrating the need to go beyond Venuti’s invisibility and towards understanding the multifaceted roles played by translators in presenting literary texts to new audiences

    A Transcendent View of Things: The Persistence of Metaphysics in Modern German Lyric Poetry, 1771–1908

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    This dissertation explores the lyric poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Eduard Mörike, and Rainer Maria Rilke, and it contends that these modern poets retain, albeit uneasily, a view of things as symbols of the transcendent divine. It thus disputes the secularization theory of post-Enlightenment aesthetics. This study specifically challenges the view of symbolism as mere metaphor—an image constructed of arbitrary signs (Nietzsche)—by showing how the epiphanies of modern lyric poetry remain grounded in the metaphysics of analogia, even where (as in Mörike) the writer seems to have left such entanglements behind. The modern poet’s desire to unveil a significant reality beyond subjective impression reveals that symbolic vision necessarily unfolds within the difference between the visible world and the transcendent divine. If signification entails likeness, yet lyric poetry always signifies in and through difference, then a constitutive analogy—that is, the simultaneity of likeness and even greater difference—emerges from within the dynamism of the lyric image itself. Part 1 begins by describing the symbolic image in Goethe’s lyric poetry to recover his view of things as expressing the “holy open mystery” of the cosmos. I show how his symbolism overcomes Enlightenment naturalism by depicting the antecedent order of analogia. Drawing primarily on Neoplatonic metaphysics, the Goethean symbol reveals the partial yet indisputable relatedness of things to the transcendent. Turning to Mörike, part 2 charts his transition to an equivocal understanding of symbol that would sever the image from its numinous source of significance by confining the image to the scope of the poet’s own gaze. Yet Mörike’s poetry also evinces a counter-veiling tendency to de-subjectivize the image, thus yielding a vision of things as they are prior to epistemic concerns, sentiment, and subjective preference. Part 3 contends that Rilke’s thing-poetry evinces a similar tendency to neutralize modernity’s biases against metaphysics. For his poetry recovers an apophatic understanding of symbolism as grounded in analogia that draws on Dionysian theology. His poems thus focus our attention on the thing’s unfathomable capacity for initiating a vision of the divine, of which the thing itself is a partial and fleeting manifestation.Doctor of Philosoph

    The Future of Work and Digital Skills

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    The theme for the events was "The Future of Work and Digital Skills". The 4IR caused a hollowing out of middle-income jobs (Frey & Osborne, 2017) but COVID-19 exposed the digital gap as survival depended mainly on digital infrastructure and connectivity. Almost overnight, organizations that had not invested in a digital strategy suddenly realized the need for such a strategy and the associated digital skills. The effects have been profound for those who struggled to adapt, while those who stepped up have reaped quite the reward.Therefore, there are no longer certainties about what the world will look like in a few years from now. However, there are certain ways to anticipate the changes that are occurring and plan on how to continually adapt to an increasingly changing world. Certain jobs will soon be lost and will not come back; other new jobs will however be created. Using data science and other predictive sciences, it is possible to anticipate, to the extent possible, the rate at which certain jobs will be replaced and new jobs created in different industries. Accordingly, the collocated events sought to bring together government, international organizations, academia, industry, organized labour and civil society to deliberate on how these changes are occurring in South Africa, how fast they are occurring and what needs to change in order to prepare society for the changes.Deutsche Gesellschaft fĂźr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) British High Commission (BHC)School of Computin

    Chinese Benteng Women’s Participation in Local Development Affairs in Indonesia: Appropriate means for struggle and a pathway to claim citizen’ right?

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    It had been more than two decades passing by aftermath the devastating Asia’s Financial Crisis in 1997, subsequently followed by Suharto’s step down from his presidential throne which he occupied for more than three decades. The financial turmoil turned to a political disaster furthermore has led to massive looting that severely impacted Indonesians of Chinese descendant, including unresolved mystery of the most atrocious sexual violation against women and covert killings of students and democracy activists in this country. Since then, precisely aftermath May 1998, which publicly known as “Reformasi”1, Indonesia underwent political reform that eventually corresponded positively to its macroeconomic growth. Twenty years later, in 2018, Indonesia captured worldwide attention because it has successfully hosted two internationally renowned events, namely the Asian Games 2018 – the most prestigious sport events in Asia – conducted in Jakarta and Palembang; and the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Bali. Particularly in the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting, this event has significantly elevated Indonesia’s credibility and international prestige in the global economic powerplay as one of the nations with promising growth and openness. However, the narrative about poverty and inequality, including increasing racial tension, religious conservatism, and sexual violation against women are superseded by friendly climate for foreign investment and eventually excessive glorification of the nation’s economic growth. By portraying the image of promising new economic power, as rhetorically promised by President Joko Widodo during his presidential terms, Indonesia has swept the growing inequality in this highly stratified society that historically compounded with religious and racial tension under the carpet of digital economy.Arte y Humanidade

    THE ARCHEOLOGY OF MORALS TOWARDS A PHENOMENOLOGY OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN EMMANUEL LEVINAS

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    1noThe Archaeology of Morals: Towards a Phenomenology of Moral Responsibility in Emmanuel Levinas is an attempt to explore and investigate the origins of moral rationality by phenomenologically analysing the components of responsibility. It is an inquiry into the archaeology of moral sensibility through a phenomenology of responsibility and as responsibility is the essential structure and constituent element of subjectivity in Levinas, in order to explain its conceptual foundations and to reinstate its sources and grammar, two significant contributions of Levinas’ predecessors are relied upon viz., the Kantian notion of respect, and the Husserlian intersubjective notion of empathy. Though this research principally analyses and contextually interprets the major works of Levinas, the research is also extended to explore the works of Kant and Husserl concerning their contribution both to explicate their interconnectedness and to highlight their relevance for Levinasian moral imaginations. The task undertaken in this phenomenological debate is therefore, threefold: firstly, to see how the notion of respect in Kantian moral metaphysics serves as the rational foundation of responsibility in Levinas; secondly, to argue how the intersubjective concept of empathy in self-other encounter gives birth to the idea of moral responsibility that is emblematic of Levinasian moral reasoning; thirdly, to re-present this novel moral responsibility as an essential structure of subjectivity to found the grammar of morality. One of the central concerns of this research is to explore how the epistemic function of intersubjective moral emotion of empathy can perform a normative function in responsibility whose metaphysical foundation can be traced back to the notion of respect. In other words, it is an attempt to redefine responsibility as of substitutional identification with the Other, making responsibility the spine of moral reasoning and explicit elaboration of subjectivity. The entire project is conceived in three parts spread into 8 chapters. Part I, entitled Juxtaposing Kant and Levinas consists of two chapters whose intent is threefold: first of all, by placing Kant and Levinas side by side, Chapter - 1 Levinas Face to Face with Kant, makes an attempt to argue that there is a possibility to stitch several important connections between these two otherwise irreconcilable and apparently antagonistic thinkers. Placing the central themes of Kantian and Levinasian precepts in pairs there emerges a common philosophical ground to understand the claims of each of them for their merit independently and to build the strategy for the further discussions by analysing the sameness and the differences of their thoughts interdependently. Secondly, in Chapter - 2, Proximity and Distance: Kant and Levinas, an attempt is made to appreciate the proximity and the distance that can be discerned between these two gigantic moral philosophers of two different epochs. Levinas’ philosophy of alterity is not only compatible with Kant’s philosophy of practical reason; it complements it in the form of a phenomenological elaboration. While the phenomenological mode of presentation differs sharply from Kant’s formalism, the principle of responsibility to the other expressed by Levinas can be derived from the categorical imperative. Undoubtedly, several of the characteristics of Kantian morality are incorporated in the ethical edifice of Levinas. Thirdly, to open up a phenomenology of responsibility based on these connections to propose a novel moral archaeology in Levinas by analysing the moral relations of Self and Other in the triad of subjectivity alterity and intersubjectivity. Part II - Moral Relations of Self and Other in Levinas analyses and elaborates in four chapters the self and other relations in Levinas. It is an investigation of the crucial moral concepts of Subjectivity, Alterity and Intersubjectivity which constitute the fabric of Levinasian moral edifice. In Chapter -3, entitled Selfhood and Subjectivity in Levinas, what is argued is that the question of morality is inseparably linked to the essential human distinctiveness and that the relations of self and other are at the heart of Levinas’ moral philosophy. As the relation of self to other assumes central place in his moral edifice, the ethical character of selfhood and its intimate relation to the alterity of other person is significant. Ethics, or in other words, our responsibility to the Other, is part of our subjectivity. Chapter -4 Otherness and Alterity in Levinas inscribes the essential existential problematic par excellence of Levinas viz., the question of the Other. Levinas’ phenomenology of the Other rooted in the Other’s irreducible strangeness and an invitation to the most intimate and radical responsibility for the Other. Instead of reducing the Other to the Same, Levinas calls us to celebrate the infinity of the Other in his radical alterity. Chapter - 5 Intersubjectivity: The self in the Other explores the notion of intersubjectivity in its origin, growth and subsequent development in the history of the phenomenological tradition. The purpose of this chapter is twofold: to define the concept of intersubjectivity as it evolved in the history of philosophy and to show how the moral sentiment of empathy is closely related to intersubjectivity. In Chapter -6, entitled Levinasian Intersubjectivity: The Other-In-Me, an attempt is made to see how Levinas compliments and completes Husserlian intersubjectivity. If Husserlian intersubjectivity, in its entire structure, development and purpose was epistemic, Levinasian intersubjectivity is essentially ethical, which is nothing but a condition of both being and having the Other in me. Part III - Towards a Phenomenology of Moral Sentiments consists of two chapters. It essays to look for the foundations and the rationality of the moral sensibility in Levinas in the twin concepts of Respect and Responsibility, and their interconnectedness. Chapter – 7 Respect as the Source of Moral Motivation aims at analysing the moral emotions of respect as well as tracing the foundations of our moral nature in the Kantian notion of respect. The thesis that we all have a radical sensibility which invites us to an imperative of responsibility is thus forwarded; an attempt is also made to affirm that this vocation is inherent in humans and has its foundation in the Kantian notion of respect. It is Kant’s analysis of respect that provides a bridge between moral philosophy and anthropology. Levinasian moral rationality of alterity, simplifying to extreme, is the responsibility for the Other, and can be seen as a reformulation and enrichment of Kantian concept of respect. Chapter – 8 entitled A Phenomenology of Moral Responsibility, analyses the concept of responsibility phenomenologically in order to maintain how Levinas redefines responsibility both as the essential structure of subjectivity and as an imperative of alterity. Responsibility in Levinas is typically being for the other, or as the essence of subjectivity it is responsibility that individuates me as a moral subject. The subject finds its moral identity in being infinitely and asymmetrically responsible, in being elected without freedom to substitute for the other. The entire edifice of Levinasian moral rationality is a phenomenon of relationality that operates in the matrix of sensibility. The metaphysical roots of alterity can be located in the concept of respect and the foundations of ethical experience, made manifest in the analysis of intersubjective phenomenon of empathy create the conditions of radical responsibility and finds its perfection in the face of the Other. This further reiterates the Levinasian claim: to be a subject is to be for the other, making subjectivity and alterity essentially morally intersubjective. My natural propensity to be responsible for the other has its metaphysical foundation in the idea of respect and provides the obligation that is essential for any ethic to be rationally conceivable. To say that responsibility is foundational for ethics and interpersonal relations is to say then not only that responsibility is what relates one subject to another, but it is to affirm that the meaning of the otherness of the other person is given in responsibility, and not in my interpretation of the other person. The very meaning of being an other person is ‘the one to whom I am responsible.’ The Other who makes me responsible is at the heart Levinasian moral phenomenology and responsibility becomes the arché of moral rationality.open“L’archeologia della Morale: verso una fenomenologia della responsabilità morale in Emmanuel Levinas” e un tentativo di esplorare e investigare le origini della razionalità morale analizzando fenomenologicamente i componenti della responsabilità. Si tratta di un’indagine sull’ archeologia della sensibilità morale dal punto di vista della fenomenologia della responsabilità. Essendo la responsabilità in Levinas la struttura essenziale e l’elemento costitutivo della soggettività, conveniva per spiegare i suoi fondamenti concettuali e per scoprire le sue fonti e la sua grammatica, invocare due contributi significativi dei predecessori di Levinas ossia il concetto kantiano di rispetto e il concetto intersoggettivo husserliano d’empatia. Questa ricerca analizza e interpreta principalmente le opere maggiori di Levinas ma essa esplora anche le opere di Kant e di Husserl per esplicitare la loro interconnessione e per sottolineare la loro pertinenza nell’immaginario morale levinassiano. In questo dibattito fenomenologico il compito è dunque triplice : in primo luogo, studiare come il concetto di rispetto nella metafisica morale kantiana fa da fondamento razionale alla responsabilità in Levinas ; in secondo luogo, argomentare come il concetto intersoggettivo d’empatia nell’incontro tra sé e l’altro dia origine all’idea di responsabilità morale che è emblematica del ragionamento morale levinassiano ; in terzo luogo, presentare questa nuova responsabilità morale come una struttura essenziale della soggettività per fondare la grammatica della moralità. Una delle preoccupazioni centrali di questa ricerca sta nell’esplorare come la funzione epistemica dell’emozione morale intersoggettiva dell’empatia possa assumere una funzione normativa nella responsabilità il cui fondamento metafisico può essere ridotto al concetto di rispetto. In altri termini, si tratta di un approccio che mira a ridefinire la responsabilità come una identificazione sostitutiva all’altro, facendo della responsabilità la colonna vertebrale del raggiamento morale e dell’elaborazione esplicita della soggettività. L’insieme del progetto è concepito in tre parti divise in otto capitoli. La prima parte intitolata “giustapporre Kant e Levinas” è composta di due capitoli il cui proposito è triplice: prima, contrapponendo nel primo capitolo “Levinas di fronte a Kant”, tentiamo di dimostrare che è possibile tessere parecchi legami importanti tra questi due pensatori, per altro inconciliabili e apparentemente antagonisti. Affiancando i temi centrali dei precetti kantiani e levinassiani a due a due, emerge un terreno filosofico comune il quale permette di capire le rivendicazioni di ognuno per i loro meriti, in maniera indipendente e di costruire la strategia per le discussioni ulteriori analizzando le similitudini e le differenze dei loro pensieri di maniera interdipendente. Poi, nel secondo capitolo “Prossimità e distanza: Kant e Levinas”, è fatto un tentativo per apprezzare la prossimità e la distanza discernibili tra questi due giganteschi filosofi morali separati nel tempo. La filosofia dell’alterità di Levinas è compatibile con la filosofia della ragione pratica di Kant, inoltre la completa sotto la forma di un’elaborazione fenomenologica. Se il modo di presentazione fenomenologica differisce fortemente dal formalismo di Kant, il principio di responsabilità verso l’altro espresso da Levinas può essere derivato dall’imperativo categorico. Indubbiamente molte caratteristiche della morale kantiana sono incorporate nell’edificio etico di Levinas. Infine, conveniva aprire una fenomenologia della responsabilità fondata su queste connessioni per proporre una nuova archeologia morale in Levinas analizzando le relazioni morali tra il sé e l’altro nella triade: soggettività, alterità e intersoggettività. La seconda parte “le relazioni morali del sé e dell’altro in Levinas” analizza e elabora in quattro capitoli le relazioni del sé e dell’altro in Levinas. Si tratta di una indagine sui concetti morali cruciali della soggettività, alterità e intersoggettività che costituiscono il tessuto dell’edificio morale levinassiano. Il terzo capitolo intitolato “soggettività in Levinas” dimostra che la questione della moralità è indissociabile dalla specificità umana essenziale e che le relazioni tra sé e l’altro sono nel cuore della filosofia morale di Levinas. Siccome la relazione di sé all’altro occupa un posto centrale nel suo edificio morale, il carattere etico del sé e la sua relazione intima con l’alterità sono significativi. L’etica, o in altri termini, la nostra responsabilità verso l’altro, fa parte della nostra soggettività. Il quarto capitolo “alterità in Levinas” iscrive la problematica esistenziale essenziale, per eccellenza, di Levinas ossia la questione dell’altro. La fenomenologia dell’altro in Levinas si radica nell’irriducibile estraneità dell’altro e in un invito alla responsabilità più intima e più radicale rei confronti dell’altro. Invece di ridurre l’altro al Medesimo, Levinas ci invita a celebrare l’infinita dell’altro nella sua alterità radicale. Il quinto capitolo “intersoggettività: il sé nell’altro” esplora il concetto d’intersoggettività nella sua origine la sua crescita e il suo ulteriore sviluppo nella storia della tradizione fenomenologica. Duplice è l’obiettivo di questo capitolo: definire il concetto d’intersoggettività quale è evoluto nella storia della filosofia e mostrare come il sentimento morale d’empatia è strettamente collegato all’intersoggettività nel sesto capitolo intitolato “intersoggettività levinassiana: l’altro-in-me” cerchiamo di vedere come Levinas completa l’intersoggettività husserliane. L’intersoggettività husserliana nella sua struttura, il suo sviluppo e la sua finalità era epistemica, l’intersoggettività levinassiana invece è essenzialmente etica, il che non è altro che una condizione di essere e di avere l’altro in me. La terza parte “verso una fenomenologia dei sentimenti morali” si compone di due capitoli. Si tratta di ricercare i fondamenti e la razionalità della sensibilità morale in Levinas nei concetti gemelli di rispetto e di responsabilità, e la loro interconnessione. Il settimo capitolo “Il rispetto come fonte di motivazione morale” intende analizzare le emozioni morali nonché rintracciare i fondamenti della nostra natura morale nel concetto kantiano di rispetto. È l’analisi del rispetto da Kant che consente di stabilire il legame tra la filosofia morale e l’antropologia. La razionalità morale levinassiana dell’alterità, in poche parole, è la responsabilità per l’altro e può essere considerata come una riformulazione e un arricchimento del concetto kantiano di rispetto. L’ottavo capitolo intitolato “una fenomenologia della responsabilità morale” analizza fenomenologicamente il concetto di responsabilità a fine di dimostrare come Levinas ridefinisce la responsabilità come struttura essenziale della soggettività e come imperativo dell’alterità. La responsabilità in Levinas è tipicamente l’essere per l’altro o come l’essenza della soggettività e la responsabilità che mi individua che mi singolarizza come un soggetto morale. In altri termini, il soggetto trova la propria identità morale essendo infinitamente e asimmetricamente responsabile, essendo eletto, senza libertà, per sostituirsi all’altro e per l’altro. Tutto l’edificio della razionalità morale levinassiana è un fenomeno di relazionalità che opera nella matrice della sensibilità. Le radici metafisiche della alterità possono essere situate nel concetto di rispetto e i fondamenti dell’esperienza etica resi manifesti nell’analisi del fenomeno intersoggettivo dell’empatia. Essi creano le condizioni di una responsabilità radicale e trovano la loro perfezione nel viso dell’altro. Questo reitera l’affermazione levinassiana: essere soggetto significa essere per l’altro, il che rende la soggettività e l’alterità essenzialmente e moralmente intersoggettive. La mia propensione naturale a essere responsabile dell’altro ha suo fondamento metafisico nell’idea di rispetto e fornisce l’obbligo che è essenziale perché ogni etica sia razionalmente concepibile. Dire che la responsabilità è fondatrice dell’etica e delle relazioni interpersonali vale a dire non soltanto che la responsabilità è ciò che ricollega un soggetto a un altro ma è affermare che il senso dell’alterità dell’altra persona è dato nella responsabilità e non nella mia interpretazione dell’altra persona. Il significato di essere un’altra persona è a proprio “colui di cui sono responsabile”. L’Altro che mi rende responsabile è nel cuore della fenomenologia morale levinassiana e la responsabilità diventa “l’archè” delle razionalità morale.openJOSEPH PETTAYIL JISJOSEPH PETTAYIL, Ji
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