From Theory to Reality: Kant’s Autonomous vs. Levinas’s Heteronomous Ethics

Mohseni, Azam; Fathtaheri, Ali

doi:10.22054/wph.2019.18467.1316

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

https://doi.org/10.22054/wph.2019.18467.1316

Abstract

Kant and Levinas’s point of departure in their works was the criticism of the Western tradition. The former proceeded to criticize a tradition that gives credit to object versus subject which ultimately leads to the spread of skepticism in epistemology and ethics. By referring to the Copernican Revolution and validating the subject both in ethics or epistemology, Kant seeks to guarantee the validity of knowledge on the one hand, and the applicability of ethics (where the agent of ethics is involved in its generation) on the other. Similarly, in the works of Levinas also the same attempts have been made, that is, he too proceeded to criticize the philosophical tradition in which “the same” and “self” are placed against “otherness” and “alterity”. He puts emphasis on both the Other and otherness and tries to build a metaphysic based on our relationship with the otherness (in a general sense) and other (in a specific sense). Levinas introduces “heteronomy” before Kant’s “autonomy” and builds ethics based on our relationship with the other. The present paper argues that in comparison with Levinas’s heteronomous ethics that relies on man’s sentiments and feelings, Kant’s autonomous ethics that emphasizes on a sort of common rationality among human beings seems to be more plausible and applicable in human society.

Keywords

References

- اسکات، دیویس. (1378). تاریخ فلسفۀ اخلاق غرب، "قرون وسطای اولیه"، ترجمۀ محسن جوادی، قم: مؤسسه آموزشی و پژوهشی امام خمینی.

- افلاطون. (1349). دورۀ آثار افلاطون، ج 1، (مکالمه کریتون)، ترجمۀ محمد حسن لطفی، رضا کاویانی، تهران: خوارزمی.

- دوبووار، سیمون. (1389). وداع با سارتر، ترجمۀ حامد فولادوند، تهران: جامی.

- سالیوان، راجر. (1380). اخلاق در فلسفه کانت، ترجمۀ عزت الله فولادوند، تهران: طرح نو.

- علیا، مسعود. (1388). کشف دیگری همراه با لویناس، تهران: نشر نی، چاپ اول.

- کانت، ایمانوئل. (1385). نقد عقل عملی، ترجمۀ انشالله رحمتی، چاپ دوم، تهران: نور الثقلین.

- کانت، ایمانوئل. (1369). بنیاد مابعدالطبیعه اخلاق، ترجمۀ حمید عنایت و علی قیصری، چاپ اول، تهران: انتشارات خوارزمی.

- کانت، ایمانوئل. (1378). درسهای فلسفه اخلاق، ترجمۀ منوچهر صانعی، تهران: نقش و نگار.

- لارنس سی، بکر. (1378). تاریخ فلسفه اخلاق غرب، ترجمۀ گروهی از مترجمان، قم: مؤسسه آموزشی و پژوهشی امام خمینی.

- Aristotle. (2004). The Nicomachean Ethics, Translated by J.A. K. Thomson, London: Penguin Books.

- Critchley, Simon. (2004). “Introduction.”, The Cambridge Companion to Levinas, edited by Robert Bernasconi and Simon Critchley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-32.

- Critchley, Simon. (2004). “Levinas and Judaism”, The Cambridge Companion to Levinas, edited by Robert Bernasconi and Simon Critchley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 33-62.

- Derrida, Jacques. (1978). “Violence and Metaphysics: A Essay on the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas”, Writing and Difference. Translated by Alan Bass. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

- Hand, Sean. (1989), The Levinas Reader, Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishing, Inc.

- Kearney, Richard. (1984). Dialogues with Contemporary Continental Thinkers: The Phenomenological Heritage, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

- Johnson, Robert. (2008). Kant's Moral Philosophy, in Edward N. Zalta (ed). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

- Levinas, Emmanuel. (1990). “The Name of a dog, or Natural Rights”, Difflculte Freedom: Essays on Judaism, Translated by Sean Hand, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

- Levinas, Emmanuel. (1991). Otherwise Than Being: Or Beyond Essence, Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

- Levinas, Emmanuel. (1996). Totality and Infinity: an Essay on Exteriority. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

- Levinas, Emmanuel. (1998). Entre: On Thinking – of – the – Other, translated by Smith, Michael B; Harshav, Barbara NeW York: Columbia University Press.

- Levinas, Emmanuel. (2000). God, Death, and Time, Translated by Bettina, Standford: Stanford University Press.

- Marcus, Paul. (1953). Being for the other: Emmanuel Levinas, ethical living and psychoanalysis, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.

- Mkhwanazi, Ezekiel. (2013). “To be human is to be responsible for the other: a critical analysis of Levinas’conception of responsibility”, Phronimon, Department of philosophy, Practical and Systematic, Unisa, Volume14(1).

- Mortley, Raoul. (1991). French Philosophers in Conversation, New York: Routledge.

- Robbins, Jill. (2001). Is It Righteous to Be? Interviews with Emmanuel Levinas, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

- Taylor, Mark C. (1986). “The Trace of the Other”, Desconstruction in Context: Literature and Philosophy, Translated by Alphonso Lingis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 345-359.

Wisdom And Philosophy

From Theory to Reality: Kant’s Autonomous vs. Levinas’s Heteronomous Ethics

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 58
July 2019
Pages 47-73

From Theory to Reality: Kant’s Autonomous vs. Levinas’s Heteronomous Ethics

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 58July 2019Pages 47-73

Volume 15, Issue 58
July 2019
Pages 47-73