The Other, ontology and the Trinitarian
12
Jun
The Other has definitely entered more recent Western thought, although
the question of the “neighbor” existed in Christian thought, it was understood as a “goodness”.
This is because Western thought is marked by an ethical humanism, humanitas (we’ve already mentioned this) in the sense that the civilizing process must contemplate both human nature and goodness, which is why we began the journey of the category Other through Lévinas.
Although influenced by Husserl’s phenomenology and Heidegger’s ontology, Levinas’ (1905-1995) thinking starts from the idea of humanitarian ethics and not ontology.
The influence is clear in his doctoral thesis La Théorie de l’Intuition dans la Phénoménologie de Husserl (1930) and he continues to write articles on both authors, some of which are later collected in his En Découvrant l’Existence avec Husserl et Heidegger (1949).
He observes that Western thought was dominated by Being until the end of the Middle Ages and then replaced by the self, his dialogues include Plato,
Levinas’ thinking starts from the idea that Ethics, and not Ontology, in 1949 he met Martin Buber (author of I-Thou) and received the seed that the place of others is indispensable for our existential realization, but solidifies his idea that ethics is critical and therefore precedes ontology, which is dogmatic, it is good to remember that both had strong Jewish influences.
Thus, Levinas’ category of Infinity refers neither to the cosmological question nor to the idea of Another Being; it is tied to idealism in the aspect of affirming the freedom of the cognizing subject in the face of the exteriority of the cognizable object, thus universalizing reason.
Remember that already in Plato the Good is the functional aspect of the One, it is above the substance or essence, the One that will be treated by the Neoplatonist Plotinus who influences Augustine of Hippo, in the work De trinitate that took almost 20 years to complete, Augustine sees it as Being, and it is undoubtedly a dogmatic aspect, which is the existence beyond the Self and the Other, a Being.
Boethius, a reader of Augustine and translator of Porphyry, for many the first scholastic, affirmed that this Being is neither being nor substance, but ultra-substance, his thought can be concluded as: “Substance is responsible for unity; relationship makes the Trinity”.
We speak of unity tied to humanitas and we need to speak of Trinity, there is the Third Being.
Augustine, St. (2008) De trinitate, books IX and XIII, Transl. Arnaldo do Espírito Santo/Domingos L. Dias/João Beato/Maria Cristina Castro-Maia de Sousa Pimentel. Portugal, Covilhã, LusoSofia:press.
Boecius. (2016) Consolações Filosóficas. Trad. Luís M. G. Cerqueira, Portugal. Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. (pdf)
Buber, Martin. (2006) Eu e tu. Transl. Newton A. Von Zuben. São Paulo, Ed. Centauro. (pdf).
Levinas, E. (1980) Totalidade e Infinito, Trad. José Pinto Ribeiro. Portugal, Lisbon: Ed. 70. (pdf)
