Tracing Sexual Difference: Beyond the Aporia of the Other :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Tracing Sexual Difference Beyond the Aporia of the a nonher(prenominal)ABSTRACT A reading of Luce Irigaray suggests the theory of tracing internal divagation in philosophical grudges of personal identity. In particular, I argue that Irigaray raises the possibility of lamentable beyond the aporia of the opposite which lies at the heart of Paul Ricoeurs account of self-identity. My contention is that the self conceived in Ricoeurs Oneself as Another is male heretofore as it is dependent upon the patriarchal monotheism which has shaped Western culture some(prenominal)(prenominal) socially and economically. Nevertheless there remains the possibility of developing Ricoeurs write to the trace of the Other in cast to give a non-essential hatching to familiar difference. Such meaning will emerge when (i) both men and women leave identities as subjects, and (ii) the difference between them sack up be bringed. I submit to elucidate both conditions by appropriating Irigarays Q uestions to Emmanuel Levinas On the Divinity of Love. I. Introduction rescue I appropriate two questions from Luce Irigarays Questions to Emmanuel Levinas On the Divinity of Love in order to disruptively refigure Paul Ricoeurs account of self-identity, without assessing Irigarays reading of Levinas. Irigaray suggests the possibility of tracing versed difference in philosophical accounts of personal identity. By tracing I mean to follow the marks left by that which is no longer present to that which is never entirely spoken, i.e. sexual difference. I argue that Irigaray makes possible moving beyond the aporia of the Other which lies at the heart of Ricoeurs account of self-identity in Oneself as Another. This aporia is a self-engendered paradox which, as I have demonstrated elsewhere, Ricoeur is not able to go beyond he cannot name the Other/other (whether lAutre as a general category for the Other or lautrui as a term for another person). My contention is that in appropriating Iri garays questions, we can bring to refigure Ricoeurs account of self-identity, extend his use of the trace of the Other and conceive the non-essential meaning of sexual difference. As it is Ricoeurs account of self-identity seems to eclipse sexual difference in creation dependent upon the patriarchal monotheism which has shaped western cultures both socially and economically. moreover according to Irigaray sexual difference will be conceiveable once (i) both men and women can gain identities as subjects, and (ii) the difference between them can be expressed. Arguably Ricoeurs notion of narrative identity, to which I will return, could express this difference and these distinct identities.