Responsiveness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/1593-7178/6493Abstract
In my contribution, I propose to define the subjective pole of otherness, namely the ability to respond and react to the other (human, animal, or inanimate) that is characteristic of the human being. Instead of being halfway between an animal and the Übermensch, as Nietzsche claimed, or in between an angel and an animal, as Pascal suggested, the human being is halfway between an animal and an automaton. Non-human animals only have the organism, and machines only the mechanism, while humans place themselves at the intersection between mechanism and organism: that is, they have responsiveness. And responsiveness (whose basic form lies in sensitivity and irritability, in terms of red eyes, an itch or a cough, while its most manifest form, philosophically, is reason as the faculty of ends) is where lies the decisive difference between human and automaton. This difference does not consist in some supplement of the spiritual soul, but in the animal nature that characterizes us as organisms. We are human because we are animals and we are more complex souls than non-human animals because we have-in us and especially outside of us-very powerful automata that are called language, culture, and technology.
Keywords: Otherness, Animal, Automaton, Mechanism, Organism
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The author retains the copyright of his work whilst granting anyone the possibility “to reproduce, distribute, publicly communicate, publicly exhibit, display, perform and recite the work”, provided that the author and the title of the journal are cited correctly. When submitting the text for publication the author is furthermore required to declare that the contents and the structure of the work are original and that it does not by any means compromise the rights of third parties nor the obligations connected to the safeguard of the moral and economic rights of other authors or other right holders, both for texts, images, photographs, tables, as well as for other parts which compose the contribution. The author furthermore declares that he/she is conscious of the sanctions prescribed by the penal code and by the Italian Criminal and Special Laws for false documents and the use false documents, and that therefore Bollettino Filosofico is not liable to responsibilities of any nature, civil, administrative or penal, and that the author agrees to indemnify and hold Bollettino Filosofico harmless from all requests and claims by third parties.
