Embodiment According to Emmanuel Lévinas: Erotic Pleasure and Caress
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.3579Keywords:
Lévinas, sensuality, erotica, anthropology, moral theologyAbstract
Lévinas describes erotic close-up and pleasure as analogous to meeting a man appearing in the face of another. This rapprochement realized in the caress is a delight. Pleasure is treated by Lévinas as a basic way of human existence, as a primary experience of himself, earlier and separate from intentionality. This thought of Lévinas makes it clear how sensual the sensation is in fact human, and above all how specific human the sensuality of eroticism, which is the sensuality of intimacy with another human being, and how different it is from sensations caused by any artificial impulse. This difference applies to all human corporeality. The human body and its sensuality are not simply matter and impulses. This approach to eroticism and corporeality allows us to see two paradigms of knowledge of reality and two anthropologies, and indicate the possibility of referring to Lévinas’ bodily, sensual anthropology in moral theology in order to show the ethical dimension of erotic approach.
References
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Lévinas E., Trudna wolność: eseje o judaizmie, tłum. A. Kuryś, Gdynia 1991.
Morajko K., Myśl, która myśli więcej niż myśli? Emmanuel Lévinas, Całość i nieskończoność. Esej o zewnętrzności, „Principia” 1999 nr 24–25, s. 279–288.
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