One (Un)Like the Other

<p><b>Aims to rethink ethics and transcendence in light of the phenomenology of empathy and social ontology.</b></p><p><i>One (Un)Like the Other</i> responds to the question What are the conditions of possibility that make genuine knowledge of other persons-and therefore love-possible? By providing an original interpretive framework for exploring ethics in relation to empathy and transcendence from multiple perspectives in continental philosophy empathy is described as a trace of what remains essentially and irreducibly other in every act of givenness. The use of the phenomenological method places <i>Einfühlung</i> theory in its rich historical context beginning with Husserl and the early phenomenologists and extending to contemporary issues that explore otherness in light of consciousness gender embodiment community intentionality emotions intersubjectivity values language and apophatic discourse. The implications of recasting empathy in an interpretive and dialogical model of reciprocity envision new paradigms of understanding ethics as an infinite playing field. No longer subservient to metaphysics and ontology empathy is described as an act of infinite concern a hermeneutics of suspicion that transcends epistemological theory and ethical command. Drawing on Husserl Scheler Stein Heidegger Levinas Derrida and others this study presents an examination and expansion of empathy as an encounter with otherness in its most radical and transcendent forms.</p>