Comments on phenomenology, politics and ethics of alienation

Abstract

The issue of the article is the concept and experience of otherness as strangeness, or different
meanings one can ascribe to them. The starting point is the comparison of two different phenomenological
descriptions of such an experience in Sartre and Levinas. It turns out that the
experience is ambiguous: the other can be perceived either as a fundamental threat to one’s
subjectivity or as an appeal to deepening it. Then the author examines more empirical manners
of experiencing strangeness in historical, social, and cultural contexts, claiming that they are
politically constructed, in a broad sense of politics. Finally, the moral meaning of such experiences
is sought, the conclusion being that also at that level one cannot avoid ambiguity: while it is
morally required to listen to the other, it also morally acceptable and even, sometimes, necessary
to treat that person as an enemy in the name of universal values.