Th 1/10 Multiculturalism and the Alterity of the Other

Reading Assignment: Levinas, Sartre, Jay (“What is Multiculturalism?”), and “Multiculturalism”

These readings are difficult, so try to get the gist of things and don’t worry about details or terms that you don’t understand.

1. For Levinas, in what way is the other infinite? How does the other summon me to ethical obligation?

2. What does Levinas mean when he says that it is impossible to kill the other (199)?

3. What does Sartre mean when he writes, “We are not lumps of clay, and what is important is not what people make of us but what we are ourselves make of what they have made of us” (239)? How is this illustrated with the example of the thief?