Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Anaxarchus, Emmanuel Levinas and Anon (Lev)

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these philosophers

4 ideas

13. Knowledge Criteria / D. Scepticism / 1. Scepticism
3061 Anaxarchus said that he was not even sure that he knew nothing [Anaxarchus, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: Anaxarchus said that he was not even sure that he knew nothing.
     From: report of Anaxarchus (fragments/reports [c.340 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 09.10.1
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / a. Preconditions for ethics
20739 Levinas took 'first philosophy' to begin with seeing the vulnerable faces of others [Levinas, by Aho]
     Full Idea: Levinas forwarded a notion of 'ethics as first philosophy' that begins from the concete exposure and openness to 'the face' of the other, an experience of vulnerability and suffering that undercuts our ordinary egoistic and objectifying tendencies.
     From: report of Emmanuel Levinas (works [1956]) by Kevin Aho - Existentialism: an introduction 1 'Existentialism'
     A reaction: Iris Murdoch speaks of seeing a falcon in flight as having a similar effect of diminishing the ego. If the main focus is on potential 'suffering' does this eventually cash out as utilitarianism? I bet not!
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / g. Love
19941 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself [Anon (Leviticus)]
     Full Idea: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
     From: Anon (Lev) (03: Book of Leviticus [c.700 BCE], 19.18)
     A reaction: Most Christians think Jesus originated this thought. Interestingly, this precedes Socrates, who taught a similar idea.
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 9. Communism
20445 Levinas says Marxism is the replacement of individualist ethics, by solidarity and sociality [Levinas, by Critchley]
     Full Idea: For Levinas, Marxism is the absorption of the ethical in the socioeconomic, and so it is the disappearance of the face-to-face relation and the privileging of relations of solidarity and anonymous sociality, which he calls 'socialism'.
     From: report of Emmanuel Levinas (works [1956]) by Simon Critchley - Impossible Objects: interviews 1
     A reaction: Startling, if you are not used to this sort of thing. If you are in trouble, I should help you, not because you are you, or a human being, but because you are a member of my group? So what about the Good Samaritan? Or solidarity with humanity? Animals?