Morality and Animality: Kant, Levinas, and Ethics as Transcendence

Abstract

Both Kant and Levinas contrast morality with a vision of the lives of animals, governed by self-interested instincts. Despite this shared Hobbesian-Darwinian account of the struggle for existence, there are significant differences: Kant positions reason as the path to transcending instinct and inclination, through respect for the moral law, but as a survivor of the Shoah, Levinas claims that reason is continuous with self-interested motivations, and the ethical should instead be understood as a form of anarchy that traumatizes the self-possessed, autonomous subject. Central to both accounts is a commitment to ethics as the transcendence of animality, and we should question whether that shared association between animality and self-interested violence is warranted.