Immodesty of the Caress

Abstract

The aim of my study is to illustrate, why Eros – the sensual, erotic desire and irresistible love one feels for another, so much embedded in personal experience, subjectivity and culture – fundamentally conflates the ethical relation in the philosophy of Lithuanian Jewish thinker Emmanuel Lévinas. In order to illustrate this opposition, the study introduces the underlying elements of his thought in contrast to a common type of misinterpretation among commentaries. Furthermore, I would like to criticize the illogical and unfounded basis of these commentaries to illustrate the uninviting and paradoxical contradictions which would inevitably arise if Love and Ethics were interwoven. The philosophy of Lévinas radically departs from what he calls the Western tradition of thought. Revisiting his idea of the ethical is of critical importance on gaining a new perspective on our interpersonal relations.