Abstract
My thesis, put simply and straightforwardly, is twofold: a. the ethical, problem-solving orientation, which is characteristic of the medical approach to the other, does not do justice to the other as Other, as “the absolutely other” (Levinas, 1969, p. 39); and b. the aesthetic perspective constitutes a less violent approach to the Other, an approach which deserves serious consideration. This view is diametrically opposed to Levinas’ privileging the ethical over the aesthetic (1969). To facilitate contrast and comparison between these two approaches to the Other, ethical versus aesthetic, I examine the role of the other in two different settings: as patient and “madman” in the clinical setting; and as a dreamer in a Chinese poem. The following discussion is divided into five sections: section one examines “madman” as the prototypical Other; section two considers the dreamer as the Other; section three compares the problem-solving approach to the “madman” with the aesthetic approach to the dreamer; section four further elaborates on the aesthetic approach to the Other as “relation without relation”; section five draws some tentative conclusions.
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Sundararajan, L. (1998). The “Madman” and the Dreamer. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Ontopoietic Expansion in Human Self-Interpretation-in-Existence. Analecta Husserliana, vol 54. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5800-8_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5800-8_7
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