O presente trabalho apresenta uma nova perspectiva para as discussões jurídicas e bioéticas acerca dos direitos da personalidade dos pacientes terminais e encontra em nosso ordenamento jurídico, na afirmação de um direito geral da personalidade, a plenitude da tutela civil dos bens jurídicos personalíssimos do enfermo, sobretudo nas etapas finais da doença, ocasião em que a hipermedicalização do processo de morrer destaca-se como o principal fator gerador de lesões de diversas naturezas a esses bens. No caminho para chegarmos à proteção geral da personalidade, examinamos alguns direitos especiais que emergem ao final da existência humana, como o direito à morte em momento natural. No intuito de recuperar a centralidade da pessoa humana como fim único a que devem servir o Direito e a Medicina, construímos a trajetória do conceito de pessoa em seu desenvolvimento jusfilosófico para afirmar que todo ser humano é pessoa e sujeito de direito (ubi homo sapiens, ibi persona), ainda que não possua capacidade jurídica de fato, e, com isso, demonstrar a impossibilidade de pertença a uma classe de não pessoas independentemente de circunstâncias ou do desenvolvimento biopsíquico humano. Asseveramos, também, que o cuidar e o tratar em pacientes gravemente enfermos e terminais deve relacionar-se, antes, ao homem em sua dignidade e plenitude, em uma concepção biomédica, filosófica e metafísica conjugada da sua existência, e não se reduzir à simples obstinação prognóstica e terapêutica, visão reducionista que relaciona tratar a doença a um investimento no prolongamento estéril da vida humana. Nesse sentido, apresentamos perspectiva jurídica inovadora para a enfermidade e para a vivência dessa condição, do ponto de vista de pacientes terminais, cuidadores e equipes de saúde, à luz do pensamento de Emmanuel Lévinas e à centralidade que ele outorga à figura do Outro, que ilumina nossa hermenêutica do instituto dos direitos da personalidade. Concluímos que se faz necessária uma mudança do paradigma atual de cuidados de saúde em fim de vida também na esfera jurídica, com a aceitação, na escolha terapêutica, da naturalidade do evento morte ao final da existência: da busca da cura, para o cuidar; da quantidade para a qualidade da vida que resta. / The thesis presents a new perspective of the legal and bioethical discussions regarding individual rights of terminal ill patients and finds in our legal system, in the assertion of a general individual right, the plenitude of the protection of the legal rights of the ill, especially at the last stages of the disease, when hipermedicalization of the dying process asserts itself as the major source of the various damages caused to individual rights. On the pathway to achieve the general protection of the personhood, we highlight some special rights which emerge at the end of human existence, as, for instance, the right for a death at a natural moment. To recover the centrality of the human person as the single and only end to which Law and Medicine should serve, we present herein a path of the concept of personhood in its juridical and philosophical development to affirm that every human being is an individual (ubi homo sapiens, ibi persona), even if he/she doesnt have legal capacity and, therewith, demonstrate the impossibility of belonging to a class of non-persons independently of circumstances or the bio-psychic development. We also argue that treating and caring of seriously ill and terminal patients should be related with person in its dignity and fullness, in a biomedical, philosophical and metaphysical conception of existence, irreducible to mere obstinacy in prognosis and treatment, as a result of a reductionist perspective which relates treating a disease to a futile investment of a sterile extension of human life. In this sense, we present a innovative juridical perspective to illness and the experience of this condition, from the point of view of terminal ill patients, caregivers and health care teams in light of the thought of Emmanuel Lévinas and the centrality that he grants to the figure of the Other, which illuminates our interpretation of individual rights. We conclude that a change in the extant paradigm of the end-of-life care in Brazil is imperative also in the legal realm, with the acceptance, in the therapeutic choice, of the natural path of death at the end of our existence: from the search for cure, to care; from quantity to quality of the remaining life.

In ihrem großen Werk Le Deuxième Sexe (1949) fragt Simone de Beauvoir, was eine Frau sei. Über diese Frage sind anscheinend nicht endende Debatten geführt worden, und eine Antwort, die auf einer rein biologischen Begründung beruht, ist längst nicht mehr ausreichend. Im Anschluss an diese Frage kann weiter gefragt werden, was das Weibliche sei. Über diesen Terminus sind in der Geschichte mindestens genauso viele Versuche unternommen worden. Der französische Philosoph Emmanuel Lévinas, Zeitgenosse Simone de Beauvoirs, ist mit seiner Ethik des Anderen in Frankreich und über die Grenzen hinaus bekannt geworden. In seiner Philosophie taucht der Begriff ‚des Weiblichen‘, später auch ‚die Frau‘ oder ‚Mutter‘ immer wieder auf. In nahezu all seinen größeren Werken sind diese Begriffe präsent. Die chronologische Aufarbeitung, die Analyse der Weiterentwicklung sowie die Deutung und Funktion beziehungsweise die Aufgabe des Weiblichen in den einzelnen Wer-ken und dem Gesamtwerk ist in der Forschungslandschaft bisher nicht erfolgt. Eine solch allumfassende Analyse kann ein Aufsatz nicht leisten. Daher ist es das Ziel, die Funktion und Interpretationsmöglichkeit des Weiblichen vorerst nur in einem Werk, Le Temps et l’autre, herauszuarbeiten.

Fokus för avhandlingen, Att uttrycka det mänskliga: narrativ etik i Nuruddin Farah’s trilogier, är de nio romaner publicerade mellan 1979 och 2011 som tillsammans utgör Nuruddin Farah’s tre trilogier: ”Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship,” bestående av Sweet and Sour Milk (1979), Sardines (1981), Close Sesame (1983); “Blood in the Sun,” bestående av Maps (1986), Gifts (1993), Secrets (1998); samt “Past Imperfect,” bestående av Links (2003), Knots (2007), Crossbones (2011). Tematiska och stilistiska skillnader till trots så är dessa trilogier och romaner märkbart sammanhängande i sitt fokus. De är inte bara tydligt förankrade i en somalisk verklighet som spänner över mer än tre decennier – en resa som inbegriper landets skifte från kommunisitstyre, via diktatur, till inbördeskrig, och 2010-talets version med islamistiskt styre och pirater som härjar kustregionen – men dessa romaner pekar genomgående bortom sin tydliga socio-politiska kontext mot djupt etiska, tid- och rumsoberoende frågeställningar: Hur förhåller sig individen till kollektivet? Vilket etiskt ansvar har jaget för den andre? Vad utgör grunden för människans gemensamma varande? Hur bevara sin mänsklighet under omänskliga levnadsförhållanden? Hur göra motstånd i en diktatur utan att bli en del i det maskineri av våld och tyranni man söker bekämpa? Trots det tydligt etiska anslaget så har dessa trilogier nästan uteslutande lästs utifrån sina politiska implikationer. Utan att undervärdera decennier av rikt och varierande kritiskt mottagande så har denna tendens till politiska läsningar ofta genererat förvånansvärt entydiga läsningar av verk kända för sin mångtydighet och komplexitet. Avhandlingen avser därför att påvisa djupet och bredden i Farah’s gestaltningar genom att tydligt belysa hur det etiska gestaltar sig på flera nivåer – tematiskt, berättartekniskt, i mötet mellan läsare och text, samt i föreställningar om författarens moraliska ansvar. Därutöver diskuteras även de etiska dimensionerna av litteraturkritik: vad innebär en etiskt hållen läsemetodik? Arbetets unika bidrag kan formuleras i fyra steg. För det första utgör avhandlingen det ända kända arbete – utöver Fiona F. Moola’s Reading Nuruddin Farah: The Individual, the Novel, and the Idea of Home (2014) – som inbegriper Farah’s alla trilogier, vilket möjliggör mer långtgående och genomgripande analyser än vad som hittills publicerats. Avhandlingens fokus på den senaste trilogin fyller dessutom en viktig lucka i det kritiska mottagandet av Farah’s romaner eftersom väldigt lite publicerats utöver recensioner. Förutom nya läsningar av Farah så utgör min emfas på det etiska i Farah’s etisk-politiska skrivande ett viktigt bidrag till det vidare fält av (afrikansk) (postkolonial) litteraturkritik där man ofta betonat det politiska över det etiska, snarare än att läst dessa två som oskiljaktiga entiteter. Trots att anledningarna till politiska läsningar av Farah’s trilogier kan härledas såväl till verkens starkt politiska nerv som författarens egna uttalanden i intervjuer och artiklar, så pekar privilegieringen av det politiska framför det etiska på en mer generell tendens inom postkolonial kritik att inrymma det etiska under det politiska. Trots att kopplingen mellan fiktion, politik och författaransvar inte kan avfärdas, hävdar jag i denna avhandling att ett ensidigt politisk angreppssätt hotar att såväl underskatta komplexiteten i romanernas gestaltningar, som att reducera konceptuellt vad författare som Farah faktiskt åstadkommer. För det andra så vidgar avhandlingen befintlig forskning kring det etiska i Farah’s romaner genom att inte endast fokusera på tematik och berättartekniska grepp, men också diskutera läsandet och skrivandet – det som i avhandlingen beskrivs som fyra sammanlänkande ”ethical moments of the told, the telling, the act of writing, the act of reading.” Utan att undervärdera tidgare kritiska läsningar så tycks många diskussioner kring Farah’s trilogier fokusera författarens centralitet på ett vis som emellanåt tar fokus från i övrigt tankeväckande läsningar av tematik och narrativa strategier. Min högst textcentrerade utgångspunkt visar som kontrast att läsningen av Farah’s trilogier genererar spörsmål som kräver ett mer holistiskt perspektiv, inte minst tydliga diskussioner kring den etiska dialog som uppstår i mötet mellan läsare och text. Förutom att bidra till befintlig forskning på Farah’s författarskap, så bidrar avhandlingens holistiska inställning till narrativ etik med fem sammanlänkade perspektiv till det vidare fältet av etisk litteraturkritik. Dels beror detta på det faktum att en sådan modell förutsätter användandet av multipla tolkningsmodeller; i mitt fall kontinental filosofi, postkolonial teori, samt narratologiska teorier kring läsande och mottagande. Denna interdisciplinära modell för narrativ etik är dock inte begränsad till min specifika sammansättning utan kan fungera som modell även för andra litteraturforskare, med alternativa kombinationer av tänkare och teoretiker. Till sist; trots att det inte varit ett uttalat mål från projektets början så har arbetet med det etiska i Farah’s trilogier generarat många funderingar kring den egna läsningen som efterhand lett till formulering av nya narratologiska perspektiv. Här utgör mötet mellan text och läsare en central del i avhandlingen. Genom att betona de etiska elementen i mötet mellan text och läsare närmar jag mig spörsmål som i förlängningen kan ses som byggstenar i en mera etiskt hållen läsemetodik. I stället för att tolka ”störande” element som exempel på estetiska brister, alternativt brister i författarens moraliska ansvarstagande (!) så menar jag att de aspekter som irriterar läsaren, försvårar eller rent av omöjliggör förståelse mycket väl kan vara de ting i texten som tvingar läsaren till en mera engagerad och därmed etiskt mer välgrundad läsning. Att läsa textens ”krux” i termer av ”ethical resource” utgör ett viktigt bidrag till såväl litteratur-filosofisk som narratologisk litteraturforskning, eftersom man ofta hamnat i endera värderande samtal kring ”god litteratur” eller i resonemang kring vilka narrativa element/strategier som väcker läsarens engagemang, empati, etc – och vilka som inte gör det. / This study explores the multiple ethical dimensions of the nine novels published between 1979 and 2011 that together constitute Nuruddin Farah’s three trilogies Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship, including Sweet and Sour Milk (1979), Sardines (1981), and Close Sesame (1983); Blood in the Sun, including Maps (1986), Gifts (1993), and Secrets (1998); and Past Imperfect, including Links (2003), Knots (2007), and Crossbones (2011). For all that separate these trilogies and novels thematically and stylistically, they are remarkably consistent in their enquiry. While firmly rooted in the geo-political particulars of Somalia, these novels stage human experience in ways that cut across time and place, inviting the reader to ponder a plethora of questions of profoundly ethical import: How can one remain human in the face of extreme adversities? How can one resist oppression in all its forms without becoming a perpetrator of that which one seeks to resist? What role may violence or non-violence have in seeking to see justice done? How far does responsibility for the other reach? How may dehumanizing forces be resisted in ways that preserve and even restore human dignity? By privileging the ethical in Farah’s ethico-political writing, the study draws attention to voices and perspectives that have gone unnoticed in previous readings, where political perspectives have dominated. Not only does a sustained analytical focus on how human dignity is valued, protected, preserved and even restored call for re-assessments of concepts such as ‘freedom,’ ‘resistance,’ and ‘moral responsibility.’ but the thesis’ highly text-centered approach has in the process of writing proved that Farah’s trilogies generate questions that demand a fuller exploration than what has hitherto been possible with a more limited emphasis on themes and narrative strategies. The use of a model in which five ‘ethical moments’ are explored thus allows for more extensive conclusions to be drawn, both regarding the ethics emerging in the trilogies themselves (‘ethics of the told,’ ‘ethics of telling’ and ‘ethics of writing’), in reading practices and critical reception (‘ethics of reading’), and my own research practice (‘ethics of method’). Ultimately, the study’s explorations of themes, narrative strategies, author’s responsibilities and critical response elucidate how Farah’s trilogies escape any narrow definition of what (African) (postcolonial) literature is or should be. By privileging the ethical trajectory – without losing sight of the strong political impetus of Farah’s writing – significant stories and perspectives surface that are no less political in their outlook than more conventional readings of “resistance writing.” By drawing on continental philosophy (Lévinas, Cavarero and Butler), narrative theory and postcolonial studies, this study brings fresh perspectives to bear on both familiar and less well-known material, while also contributing to new methodological frameworks within narrative ethics and new theoretical perspectives within narrative theory, not least as reflected in the final chapter’s discussion of imaginative challenges.

The thesis is called Emmanuel Lévinas Ethics and its aim is to explain the ethical concept of this original French philosopher. The first part of the thesis is focused on important influences that were important for Lévinas' philosophical work. The next part of the thesis deals with dialogical personalism as a philosophical direction into which Lévinas is most often classified. The third and most important part deals with the motives that led Lévinas to the elaboration of his ethical theses and subsequently parts of these theses are processed. It turns out that the basic aspect of his theory is the social relationship of the 'I' with the Second, through which the path to transcendence leads .Lévinas' conception is considered as a sort of ethical turn in philosophy and can be considered as a return to man. Properly conceived ethics based on respect, Levinas considers being "prima Philosophia".

The main purpose of the present study is to explore how the ethical relationship between teacher and student in the classroom can be described and understood from the approach of the French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas. I also examine the theoretical concepts that can be derived from Lévinas’ ideas in order to be able to interpret the manner in which this ethical relationship manifests itself in the classroom. The empirical data was generated through observation of the kind often found in ethnographical studies like microanalyses using a variety of digital techniques. I also made use of direct observation and stimulated recall interviews in close connection with the classroom events. The study was carried out at two Swedish schools and the focus was placed on classroom practice and ethical communication in the classroom. Facial expressions, eye contact, gestures and other non-verbal communication was of great interest. Through microanalysis of classroom interaction I have attempted to uncover what exists under the surface of the classroom communication in more detail. According to Lévinas, ethics is understood as a relation of the infinitive responsibility to the Other person. In a pedagogical context, we may speak of the ”first meeting” face-to-face before any categorization of the other individual is formulated. The key concepts are Saying (in relation to the Said), the Other, the Face, asymmetrical relationships and alterity. In their encounter with the empirical data collected, the concepts have been freighted with edagogical significance. These original ethical thoughts of Lévinas, much of which challenge what has previously been taken for granted, can provide new insight into educational work. This investigation has provided other insights into the ethical dimension of education, especially as the teacher-student relationship is concerned. The close connection between vulnerability and interdependence in the teacher-student relationship, and communication as self-exposure, are important findings that can help teachers and pedagogues to understand the ethical dimension of the educational encounter with the student. Throughout the study, a relational ethical perspective has been developed as an alternative interpretative tool for analyzing and reflecting upon the teacher-student relationship.

Victimes et bourreaux témoignent de la double dégradation, anthropologique et morale, subie par la figure de l’homme à Auschwitz. Hannah Arendt et Emmanuel Lévinas, tous deux Juifs et nés en 1906, ont tenté de retrouver le sens de la dignité humaine après la Shoah. Partageant la même admiration embarrassée pour la pensée de Martin Heidegger, dont ils ont suivi l’enseignement, ils s’engagent dans des voies philosophiques très différentes. Alors qu’Arendt met en avant l’espace politique comme lieu d’expression de la pluralité et de reconnaissance publique des différences individuelles, Lévinas fait de l’éthique la « philosophie première » et situe le proprement humain dans la responsabilité infinie pour autrui. Là où Arendt insiste sur l’importance de la pensée et du jugement dans la recherche des normes morales, Lévinas soutient que la lutte contre le mal est indissociable de la réponse à l’appel du Bien.Deux axes problématiques guident, dans ce travail, la confrontation entre les deux philosophes : l’articulation entre universalité et diversité d’une part ; le lien entre éthique et politique d’autre part. L’enjeu étant l’organisation d’un monde commun pour l’expression et la préservation de la dignité humaine. / The victims and the torturers attest to both the human and moral degradation suffered by the figure of man at Auschwitz.Hannah Arendt and Emmanuel Lévinas, both Jews and born in 1906, attempted to recover the meaning of human dignity after the Holocaust. Despite sharing the same embarrassed admiration for the thought of Martin Heidegger, whose courses they followed, they choose very different philosophical paths.While Arendt emphasizes the political space as the place where plurality is expressed and individual differences are publicly acknowledged, Lévinas makes ethics « first philosophy » and situates what is essentially human within infinite responsibility for the Other. Where Arendt insists on the importance of thought and judgment in the search for moral standards, Lévinas holds that the struggle against evil is inseparable from responding to the call of the Good.In this thesis, two critical themes guide the comparison between each philosopher: the connection between universality and diversity on one hand; and, the link between ethics and politics on the other. The issue at stake is the organization of a shared world for the expression and the preservation of human dignity.

Homo Perfidus: An Antipathology of the Coward’s Betrayal identifies and speaks to an ethical and methodological lacuna in western metaphysics with regards to betrayal. Following Levinas’ call for an ‘Ethics as first philosophy,’ my research question is: ‘How can I think of betrayal responsibly?’ I offer to approach betrayal as an accusation, one that comports an excessive hatred towards the identified ‘traitor.’ Suspending its moral vilification, I construct a broadly phenomenological method – which I call ‘antipathology’ – that proposes to take this hatred seriously; not as the sign of a lack to be filled or purloined with shame, but of a communication to respond-to. Tracking western thought’s metaphysical engagements – mainly via Kant, Hegel and Heidegger – my antipathology witnesses an exceedingly systematic muting of this hatred. Such a principled effacement of hatred’s signs is the very mechanism by which western thought “de-problematizes” betrayal, appropriating its otherness for its own metaphysical ends. To those ends, betrayal ceases to be an event and becomes its ‘prefiguration,’ a twist on an assumed temporal and causal progression. I focus here on the coward’s betrayal, broadly defined as secession from a principle – seen to give cohesion and legitimacy to a ‘Whole’ – of which this traitor was nevertheless an integral part until the event of her betrayal. Antipathology follows young Hegel’s ‘antisemitic’ association of the “Jewish spirit” with a principle of alienation and secession, a vain and hateful self-assertion that only “Christian spirit” can successfully negate, turning this drive for hateful dissociation to one of loving association (with progressively diminishing “remainders”). Reading modern philosophy’s treatment of the skeptic I show how her doubt can be appropriated and turned to ‘Truth’ in the same way that the Jews’ hateful and cowardly betrayal can be turned to absolute faith/love; what Hegel calls “negating the negation.” Both ‘Jew’ and ‘Skeptic’ here become antibodies in a process through which a ‘Whole’ slowly becomes immune, or insensitive to, the threat of future interruptions: outside of this process – offering no ‘Whole’ of their own – their respective interruptions are seen as expressions of vanity, of a ‘self’ that breaks-away from the bonds of belonging and love in a fit of gratuitous hatred and doubt; all in the name of a “who knows what” that for Hegel, as well as for Kant and Heidegger, amounts to precisely ‘Nothing.’ I conclude by a performative ‘antipathological’ reading of Dante’s Inferno alongside Kafka’s In the Penal Colony: while Dante, as a faithful ‘Christian’ witness to Divine Justice (Hell), desires to internalize the Truth of God, progressively renouncing the vain resistances of a ‘self’ not yet fully reconciled to God’s Being (the theological ‘Pleroma’ of the ‘Whole’), Kafka’s nameless traveler, as a skeptical ‘coward-witness,’ not only remains “unconverted” but also causes the violence that is implicit in the Dante-esque ‘progression’ to show itself. ‘Faith’ is here shown as progression from one betrayal-event to another, all of which require the believer to sacrifice another part of their resistance to the demands of the ‘Whole’ until no such resistance remains (or, at least, felt/expressed). Similarly, the Dante that begins his journey weeping for the suffering of Hell’s sinners, ends up kicking one of them in the face; deliberately, yet without hatred, as if it were a mere rock on the road. The coward’s betrayal consists in her ‘vain witness’ to time as rupture, as event, as the opening that puts her previous beliefs and attachments in radical question. The hatred towards the coward and the accusation of ‘traitor’ mark this question as a threat to the ‘Whole;’ a mark that, approached antipathologically, can open a discourse concerning the violence (and self-violence) that was and is necessary to keep the ‘Whole,’ through a narrated causal-historical time, from breaking apart. Painful and dangerous, this approach is, nonetheless, the only way to keep a system that abolished all ‘positions to complain’ from being equated with a ‘wholly just’ system; or to keep a knowledge-machine that successfully tames all doubts from being absolved.

This thesis covers the interpretation of life and work of Marc Chagall, jewish painter of 20th century. Goal of the thesis is to highlight symbolic motives of his work, and later on interpret those on selected pieces. The thesis is divided into four parts. First part is devoted to the life of the painter and his jewish origin, which had a significant influence on the character of his work. Second part covers the meaning of symbols in art and religon in general. Third tries to compare Chagall's conveyance with two jewish philosophers of the dialog: E. Lévinas and F. Rosenzweig. Fourth then interprets selected pieces with philosophical or religious extent. Whole thesis is based on the conception that art is able to convey messages and interpret the world around us.