Description
Book SynopsisTaking up the question of otherness that so fascinates contemporary continental philosophy, this book asks what it means for something or someone to be other than the self. It uses the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel to provide the point of embarkation for understanding the two positions on this question.
Trade Review"Contrasts the philosophical thought of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel in a study of what it means for something or someone to be other than the self." -The Chronicle of Higher Education "Treanor stages a dramatic joust between the ethical theories of Levinas and Marcel - the resulting adjudication is ingenious, timely and scrupulously just." -- -Richard Kearney Boston College "This important and thought-provoking work successfully reveals the relevance of the underappreciated Marcel for contemporary debates in ethics and the philosophy of religion." -Choice "Aspects of Alterity provides a nuanced and wonderfully lucid account of the problem of otherness. By way of a careful reading of Levinas, Marcel, and their inheritors, Treanor compellingly argues that an absolute other can issue no call nor even be understood as other. Instead, Treanor points us to a 'relative otherness,' one that is still truly other but with whom relations are actually possible." -- -Bruce Ellis Benson Wheaton College "Treanor's exposition of 'otherness' in Marcel and Levinas is lucid, thorough and provocative." -- -Brendan Sweetman Rockhurst University "In this provocative text, Treanor not only offers a fascinating exposition of the competitive and complementary heterologies of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel, but he also sounds out the echoes of their voices in the contemporary debate between absolute and relative alterity." -- -B. Keith Putt Samford University
