Grace S Feeney | University of Toronto (original) (raw)

Papers by Grace S Feeney

Perspectives: UCD Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy, 2024

The starting point of the embodied being as vulnerable, instead of autonomous and self-interested... more The starting point of the embodied being as vulnerable, instead of autonomous and self-interested is held in common, offering a greater possibility of liberating the liberal subject from unjust institutional restraints, is shared. However, whether embodiment, as inherently and inescapably vulnerable, is prior to one's relations with others is in question. In Levinas's philosophy, one's desire for what can be possessed, whether material things or symbolic gifts like recognition, is ruptured in the face-to-face encounter, where one is confronted with one's fundamental and all-encompassing responsibility to the Other. This is, however, a completely positive description of human nature, in his philosophy. By responding to the call of the Other, one is opened to the infinite, and can thereby access one's deepest potential for finding and making meaning. This possibility is not given its due in many contemporary feminist presentations of vulnerability analysis, which focuses on the necessity of state responsiveness. This is not necessarily in opposition to any particular idea in Levinas's account, but it does lack a foundational understanding of human nature.

Perspectives: UCD Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy, 2024

The starting point of the embodied being as vulnerable, instead of autonomous and self-interested... more The starting point of the embodied being as vulnerable, instead of autonomous and self-interested is held in common, offering a greater possibility of liberating the liberal subject from unjust institutional restraints, is shared. However, whether embodiment, as inherently and inescapably vulnerable, is prior to one's relations with others is in question. In Levinas's philosophy, one's desire for what can be possessed, whether material things or symbolic gifts like recognition, is ruptured in the face-to-face encounter, where one is confronted with one's fundamental and all-encompassing responsibility to the Other. This is, however, a completely positive description of human nature, in his philosophy. By responding to the call of the Other, one is opened to the infinite, and can thereby access one's deepest potential for finding and making meaning. This possibility is not given its due in many contemporary feminist presentations of vulnerability analysis, which focuses on the necessity of state responsiveness. This is not necessarily in opposition to any particular idea in Levinas's account, but it does lack a foundational understanding of human nature.