A note against empiricism: Derrida quotes Scheler (in his essay on Levinas, “Violence and Metaphysics”) to this effect: “I see not only the eye of an other, I see also that he looks at me.” That is, what is seen is not only a thing, a dead object, but also a responding subject, an intention even. If a look can be seen, then empiricism and all the reductionisms that are associated with it are destroyed. But a look can be seen, not only the face, but another face’s glance at my face.
Notes on Anosmia
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Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
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