A Different Alterity

Jean-Luc Nancy's ‘Singular Plural’

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19000487
AutoresChristopher Watkins (0000-0002-5560-8596, autor correspondente), Christopher WATKIN
Ano2007
Volume30
Fascículo2
Páginas50-64
Data de publicação2007-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoParagraph (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0264-8334 • E-ISSN: 1750-0176
EditoraEdinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3366/prg.2007.0026
OpenAlexW2102770028
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas10

Under the influence of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, the theme of absolute alterity still dominates the thinking of the ethical in Continental philosophy. This article examines an alternative ethical démarche, Jean-Luc Nancy's ‘singular plurality’, which refuses to start with the opposition of same and other, arguing instead for a primacy of relation, the ‘in-common’ and the ‘with’. The article first distinguishes Nancy's ‘singular plural’ from other recent attempts to disengage ethical thinking from the Levinasian framework, before showing how Nancy proceeds otherwise than in terms of sameness and alterity while still maintaining an ethical impetus. Foregrounding what is politically and philosophically at stake in the difference between Nancy and the Levinasian/Derridean model, the article concludes by considering how Nancy can be defended against critics who mistakenly argue that he discounts alterity

Alterity · Epistemology · Foregrounding · Linguistics · Plural · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Law · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications