Beyond the Subject: From «ethical and political vulnerability» in Adriana Cavarero and Judith Butler to «ethical vulnerability» in Emmanuel Levinas

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the question of vulnerability, starting from the reflections of Judith Butler and Adriana Cavarero. By observing our constitutive condition of interdependence, the two authors argue that vulnerability will serve as the basis for a new kind of political community and for a reconfiguration of ethical and social action within an ethics of care. This idea presents a possible confrontation with the reflections of Emmanuel Levinas about passivity. Levinas thinks more radically the concept of vulnerability. Not only the encounter with the face of the Other obliges us to confront with our condition of vulnerability, but also the encounter with the face of terrorist. Therefore, Levinas calls us to take ethical choice in order to remind us to attend to the face of all, even those who seek to deface our own.