For Emmanuel Levinas, the death of the other is the "first death" and the fundamental ethical experience. He emphasizes that it is through the experience of the death of others that we develop a relationship with death. Thus, Levinas reverses the traditional perspective. Death breaks down the isolation of the self and makes existence pluralistic. It is the occasion for breaking out of one's own self-reference. The "death of the other" is the starting point of ethics, as it marks the beginning of…
Read moreFor Emmanuel Levinas, the death of the other is the "first death" and the fundamental ethical experience. He emphasizes that it is through the experience of the death of others that we develop a relationship with death. Thus, Levinas reverses the traditional perspective. Death breaks down the isolation of the self and makes existence pluralistic. It is the occasion for breaking out of one's own self-reference. The "death of the other" is the starting point of ethics, as it marks the beginning of an infinite responsibility of the self towards the other. This aspect of Levinas's work has only been considered from an ethical point of view to date. However, this is not the only conceivable one. Ethics and anthropology have areas of overlap. It is equally plausible to consider this aspect from an anthropological perspective. The article will do so using the Holocaust and the actions of the Nazis as examples.
