Economies of suffering: Kierkegaard and levinas

Benjamin, A; Cuff Snow, S

Economies of suffering: Kierkegaard and levinas

Benjamin, A Cuff Snow, S

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Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: Perspectives on Human Suffering, 2012, pp. 33 - 42
Issue Date:: 2012-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Benjamin, A	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Cuff Snow, S	en_US
dc.date.issued	2012-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Perspectives on Human Suffering, 2012, pp. 33 - 42	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9789400727946	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/116443
dc.description.abstract	© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012. This chapter explores Kierkegaard’s conception of suffering and a Levinasian response through a reading of the latter’s useless suffering. Kierkegaard identifies suffering as a temporal moment to be actively passed through on the way to eternal salvation. It is argued, therefore, that Kierkegaard determines suffering as necessarily a means to an end, operative according to a logic of utility. The subject is therefore solitary in its suffering. For Levinas, suffering is useless, rendered useful only through the maintenance of a logic of utility and therefore an autarkical subject. It is argued that Levinas transforms the locus of the ethical by re-locating suffering in an economy conditioned by the interhuman order and thus a self-other relation that undermines any logic of utility. Through suffering, the subject, the reaches the limits of its mastery, opened up to the grounding, ethical relation with the Other.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Perspectives on Human Suffering	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1007/978-94-007-2795-3_4	en_US
dc.title	Economies of suffering: Kierkegaard and levinas	en_US
dc.type	Chapter
utslib.for	190103 Art Theory	en_US
utslib.for	2202 History and Philosophy of Specific Fields	en_US
utslib.for	120103 Architectural History and Theory	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Architecture
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US

Abstract:

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012. This chapter explores Kierkegaard’s conception of suffering and a Levinasian response through a reading of the latter’s useless suffering. Kierkegaard identifies suffering as a temporal moment to be actively passed through on the way to eternal salvation. It is argued, therefore, that Kierkegaard determines suffering as necessarily a means to an end, operative according to a logic of utility. The subject is therefore solitary in its suffering. For Levinas, suffering is useless, rendered useful only through the maintenance of a logic of utility and therefore an autarkical subject. It is argued that Levinas transforms the locus of the ethical by re-locating suffering in an economy conditioned by the interhuman order and thus a self-other relation that undermines any logic of utility. Through suffering, the subject, the reaches the limits of its mastery, opened up to the grounding, ethical relation with the Other.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/116443