Alterity — From Latin alteritas (the condition of being other). A philosophical concept designating the irreducible difference of the other qua other, not assimilable to the identity of the same. Although the relation between the same and the other already appears in Plato (Sophist, 254b–259d), it is Emmanuel Levinas who elevates alterity to a fundamental philosophical principle. In Totality and Infinity (1961), Levinas argues that the Western tradition — from Parmenides to Hegel — has systematically subordinated the Other to the Same, reducing difference to identity (ontology as “philosophy of totality”). Against this, he proposes ethics as first philosophy: the face (visage) of the Other addresses me with an infinite demand prior to any thematisation. The ethical relation is asymmetrical — I am responsible for the Other before any reciprocity. The concept reverberates in contemporary philosophy: Derrida radicalises it through the logic of différance; Ricoeur seeks a dialectic between ipse (selfhood) and alterity (Oneself as Another, 1990).
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