Tony Wilde | University of Hull (original) (raw)
Papers by Tony Wilde
Sartre Studies International, 2019
In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our... more In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our ageing bodies. This body can inhibit an active engagement with the world, which marks our humanity. Her claims rest on the binary between the body-for-itself and the body-in-itself. She shares this binary with Sartre, but a perceptive phenomenology of the affective body can also be found, which works against this binary and allows her thought to be brought into conversation with Levinas. For Levinas, the susceptibility of the body is constitutive of our subjectivity, rather than a source of alienation. If we develop Beauvoir’s thought in the direction of his, an ontological structure is suggested, distinct from Sartre – a structure which makes room for her pervasive attention to affectivity.
The thesis argues that Emmanuel Levinas s later concept of ethical subjectivity, explicated in hi... more The thesis argues that Emmanuel Levinas s later concept of ethical subjectivity, explicated in his late work Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, can really only be understood by taking into account the very early work On Escape. The thesis argues that the concept of ethical subjectivity emerges from his work via his attempts to articulate transcendence. Transcendence itself is ultimately identified with ethics. My thesis traces his continued attempts at a satisfactory conception of transcendence through the early works (Existence and Existents and Time and the Other), and via his other major work Totality and Infinity. On Escape articulates a very specific notion of need in terms of a need for escape which forms the conceptual seeds of Levinas s idea of transcendence, and which will ultimately become his notion of metaphysical Desire. His notion of ethics as the arresting of the spontaneous ego s conatus by the face of the Other, will turn out to ultimately requires the articulation of ethical subjectivity. The notion of ethical subjectivity is made possible, and thus his work reaches maturity, by the introduction of the notion of the trace. I argue that the idea of subjectivity as openness and vulnerability and the notion of an otherwise than being can be traced to the early work. My thesis takes as its starting point Levinas s engagement and criticism of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. I argue that Levinas can best be understood as always in some sense in conversation with Heidegger. 7 Levinas (2006b) 8 We will see that there are significant exceptions to this whole. 9 I use capitals in order to emphasise the philosophical centrality of these concepts in Levinas s philosophy. It
Sartre Studies International, 2019
In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our... more In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our ageing bodies. This body can inhibit an active engagement with the world, which marks our humanity. Her claims rest on the binary between the body-for-itself and the body-in-itself. She shares this binary with Sartre, but a perceptive phenomenology of the affective body can also be found, which works against this binary and allows her thought to be brought into conversation with Levinas. For Levinas, the susceptibility of the body is constitutive of our subjectivity, rather than a source of alienation. If we develop Beauvoir’s thought in the direction of his, an ontological structure is suggested, distinct from Sartre – a structure which makes room for her pervasive attention to affectivity.
Sartre Studies International, 2019
In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our... more In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our ageing bodies. This body can inhibit an active engagement with the world, which marks our humanity. Her claims rest on the binary between the body-for-itself and the body-in-itself. She shares this binary with Sartre, but a perceptive phenomenology of the affective body can also be found, which works against this binary and allows her thought to be brought into conversation with Levinas. For Levinas, the susceptibility of the body is constitutive of our subjectivity, rather than a source of alienation. If we develop Beauvoir’s thought in the direction of his, an ontological structure is suggested, distinct from Sartre – a structure which makes room for her pervasive attention to affectivity.
Producing a confrontation between Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Heidegger is in many ways an awkwar... more Producing a confrontation between Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Heidegger is in many ways an awkward undertaking. The difference between the two thinkers could be said to be, in an important sense, fundamental. The standard view is to see Heidegger as concerned with the question of the meaning of being and thus as favouring Ontology as first philosophy, whereas Levinas, on the other hand, is said to be concerned with the question of alterity or Otherness and explicitly states that ethics is first philosophy. What I wish to do is to set up such a confrontation by means of comparison of two areas of their work: the question of our fundamental way of being-in-the-world and the related question of our relation to other people.
Sartre Studies International, 2019
In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our... more In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our ageing bodies. This body can inhibit an active engagement with the world, which marks our humanity. Her claims rest on the binary between the body-for-itself and the body-in-itself. She shares this binary with Sartre, but a perceptive phenomenology of the affective body can also be found, which works against this binary and allows her thought to be brought into conversation with Levinas. For Levinas, the susceptibility of the body is constitutive of our subjectivity, rather than a source of alienation. If we develop Beauvoir’s thought in the direction of his, an ontological structure is suggested, distinct from Sartre – a structure which makes room for her pervasive attention to affectivity.
The thesis argues that Emmanuel Levinas s later concept of ethical subjectivity, explicated in hi... more The thesis argues that Emmanuel Levinas s later concept of ethical subjectivity, explicated in his late work Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, can really only be understood by taking into account the very early work On Escape. The thesis argues that the concept of ethical subjectivity emerges from his work via his attempts to articulate transcendence. Transcendence itself is ultimately identified with ethics. My thesis traces his continued attempts at a satisfactory conception of transcendence through the early works (Existence and Existents and Time and the Other), and via his other major work Totality and Infinity. On Escape articulates a very specific notion of need in terms of a need for escape which forms the conceptual seeds of Levinas s idea of transcendence, and which will ultimately become his notion of metaphysical Desire. His notion of ethics as the arresting of the spontaneous ego s conatus by the face of the Other, will turn out to ultimately requires the articulation of ethical subjectivity. The notion of ethical subjectivity is made possible, and thus his work reaches maturity, by the introduction of the notion of the trace. I argue that the idea of subjectivity as openness and vulnerability and the notion of an otherwise than being can be traced to the early work. My thesis takes as its starting point Levinas s engagement and criticism of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. I argue that Levinas can best be understood as always in some sense in conversation with Heidegger. 7 Levinas (2006b) 8 We will see that there are significant exceptions to this whole. 9 I use capitals in order to emphasise the philosophical centrality of these concepts in Levinas s philosophy. It
Sartre Studies International, 2019
In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our... more In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our ageing bodies. This body can inhibit an active engagement with the world, which marks our humanity. Her claims rest on the binary between the body-for-itself and the body-in-itself. She shares this binary with Sartre, but a perceptive phenomenology of the affective body can also be found, which works against this binary and allows her thought to be brought into conversation with Levinas. For Levinas, the susceptibility of the body is constitutive of our subjectivity, rather than a source of alienation. If we develop Beauvoir’s thought in the direction of his, an ontological structure is suggested, distinct from Sartre – a structure which makes room for her pervasive attention to affectivity.
Sartre Studies International, 2019
In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our... more In this article, we explore Beauvoir’s account of what she claims is an alienated relation to our ageing bodies. This body can inhibit an active engagement with the world, which marks our humanity. Her claims rest on the binary between the body-for-itself and the body-in-itself. She shares this binary with Sartre, but a perceptive phenomenology of the affective body can also be found, which works against this binary and allows her thought to be brought into conversation with Levinas. For Levinas, the susceptibility of the body is constitutive of our subjectivity, rather than a source of alienation. If we develop Beauvoir’s thought in the direction of his, an ontological structure is suggested, distinct from Sartre – a structure which makes room for her pervasive attention to affectivity.
Producing a confrontation between Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Heidegger is in many ways an awkwar... more Producing a confrontation between Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Heidegger is in many ways an awkward undertaking. The difference between the two thinkers could be said to be, in an important sense, fundamental. The standard view is to see Heidegger as concerned with the question of the meaning of being and thus as favouring Ontology as first philosophy, whereas Levinas, on the other hand, is said to be concerned with the question of alterity or Otherness and explicitly states that ethics is first philosophy. What I wish to do is to set up such a confrontation by means of comparison of two areas of their work: the question of our fundamental way of being-in-the-world and the related question of our relation to other people.