In the Beginning Is Philosophy
On Desire and the Good
Series:
Brayton Polka
This book would be indispensable to courses (both undergraduate and graduate) in philosophy, religious studies, and the history of ideas – in interdisciplinary courses in the humanities, generally – that focus on the values that are central, both historically and ontologically, to modernity.
4 Ethics: What Do I Love? In Beginning with the Neighbor as My Creation
Extract
| 87 →
Introduction
There is one thing that cannot be thought, by me, the subject, without existing, necessarily, and that is—God. There is one thing that I, the subject, cannot think—will, desire, love…—without existing, necessarily, and that is—the other, the other self, the subject who is other than my self, the subject who is the other of my self: God, the neighbor. What I love—or desire, will, think…—is my good, my self, my God, my neighbor, the one next to or near to me. I do desire or love something, whatever it be. I cannot not desire or love … something. For, as we saw in the last chapter, Nietzsche shows that we would rather desire nothing than not desire. Indeed, not to desire is but the passive, the negative, the self-evasive refusal, the evasion on the part of the self to acknowledge that not to desire is, still, to desire nothing. We are desiring beings: we are beings of desire. Desire is our being. There is no outside desire. There is no being outside of desire (there is no desire outside of being): what we desire, the desire of our being, the being of our desire is our good.
We are, then, in the presence of a double (or even multiple) paradox. The first paradox is that of the subject, the self, the “I.” The second paradox is that of God whose necessary existence as demonstrated by the ontological...
You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article.
This site requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals.
Do you have any questions? Contact us.
Or login to access all content.