Subject: Re: new .sig
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 1997 19:25:38 PST



>The alterity of the other evokes the threat of extinction to the 
>extent that this very alterity speaks to that which is in us more >than 
we are in ourselves.

Is that really the "threat of extinction" or rather the possibility of 
extending the boundaries of the self?  We grasp the other in a way in 
which we are unable to grasp or under-stand ourselves.  By meeting the 
other and speaking to him/her (of what is a mystery to us) we meet the 
other which we harbor within ourselves as an unknown.  And in this 
meeting we grasp the other within, and we grow.

>Striking out at the other is denying at the
>top of our lungs what we are but can not know.

I would not say "denial" but rather defense, a movement of protection 
against something which we perceive as external to ourselves.  Striking 
out at the other is like the turning away from death in a movement of 
hope, heroic hope (see Levinas, 'Time and the Other') -- a movement of 
defense against a mystery which seems as a threat to the self, but which 
also may be grasped as the possibility of extending the self.


Regards,

Edward Moore
monsieurtexteEM-AT-hotmail.com


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