The Look and the Face: Comparison of phenomenological approaches to encountering the other in the works of Sartre and Lévinas
Abstract
Principal aim of this article is to contrast phenomenological descriptions of encountering the other as presented by Jean-Paul Sartre in Being and Nothingness and Emmanuel Levinas in Totality and Infinity. The text focuses on the extent of the objectifying nature of the encounter and proceeds to show that both phenomenal descriptions while different in some regards share quite a few essential motives.
Probably the most transparent of them all is the "threat" to my freedom, which the other brings along with his emergence. The climax of presented text is then a conclusion that (while respecting their mutual divergences) both Sartre and Levinas operate with this motive in very alike manners and that for both of them it consequently serves as a solidification of personal freedom.