The Place of the Other in the Deconstruction of Subjectivity and Ethics: Lacan and Levinas

Lacan and Levinas were among the first contemporary thinkers of the twentieth century who have put emphasize on the concepts of otherness and subjectivity. The approach of these two thinkers to the issue has been accompanied by critique and challenge of rational subjectivism and the ethics of modern philosophy. Accordingly, the decentralization of the self-sovereignty subject, the priority of the other in the destruction of subjectivity and the redefinition of Ethics among the common principles that have been heuristic in presenting their new reading of the subject. However, Lacan and Levinas have taken different interpretations, insights, and conclusions in their attempts to explain the meaning of the other, the reason for its priority over the subject, and also to redefine the subject. On the one hand, in the contexts of structuralist and poststructuralist approaches in the heart of the field of psychoanalysis, Lacan Summoned the lacking subject, which is split and barred, to resist and negate with the structure of the big other, and in this resistance, the concept of desire plays a key role. On the other hand, Levinas with a phenomenological approach and in the heart of a religion-based approach, exposes the subject to the other with asymmetric responsibility, and in this regard, the face of the other plays a fundamental role in evoking the inescapable responsibility in the subject. Lacan and Levinas deal with two different aspects of otherness, which has also led to a different reading of subjectivity.