Ortega y gassett – the hidden inwardness

In his _Man and People_, Ortega describes the other person as a surprise. I suddenly discover that I am not the only inhabitant of the world. Somebody co-exists with me in 'my' world, and now I cannot relax as I did before.

My reaction to the other is: "Who goes there?!"

Previously, my world was cozy and familiar. It was mine. But now the Other has entered my world, and his appearance signifies something disturbing: Behind his eyes there hides his inner world. His inwardness is hidden from my view.

I cannot see his inwardness - his feelings and thoughts and intentions. But through his body I can see that his inwardness relates to me, that it responds to my presence, just as I can respond to his. In this sense, the other is dangerous, because I can never fully predict and control his reactions.

But the Other is not only a problem for me. Because through his appearance I discover my boundaries, my limitations, and thus my capacities and incapacities, my tastes, my opinions. Through the other I discover myself.

Donna can use Ortega's notion of the Other as a dangerous surprise in order to understand her own worldview. In her worldview, too, the Other is a potential danger.

The rest of Ortega's conception is different from hers, but nevertheless the contrast may shed light upon her conception. For her, the Other is dangerous because he is a dark and irrational force, not because he is a hidden inwardness. Furthermore, the place where she encounters herself is her solitary alone-ness, while for Ortega I discover myself in my encounters with others.

EMANUEL LEVINAS – THE OTHER’S FACE

For Levinas, Western philosophy has failed to respect the other person as an Other, as fundamentally different from me, as a reality that is beyond my knowledge. Philosophers have always tried to translate the Other into what Levinas calls 'the Same': into my own concepts. They have always understood the Other as just another 'I'. This is an imperialist attitude, which tries to invade the Different and make it comprehensible.

To truly encounter the Other is to encounter him as radically different. The Other is always beyond my horizons. This means that his appearance shatters my egocentric world. When the Other enters my world I am no longer free to do whatever I feel like. I now have new responsibilities: I must acknowledge other people. The face of the Other expresses the ethical command: "Do not kill me!", don’t obliterate me.

Donna could borrow from Levinas the concept of the Other as a totally Other. But the rest of his world is not her world. The Other for her is not an ethical command, but on the contrary, a threatening force. Thus, through Levinas she might discover an interesting asymmetry in her worldview: For her, the Other signifies obligations towards me, but I have no obligations towards him. The reason for this is clear: Because the 'self' is the location of self-knowledge, rationality, sanity. In contrast, the other person, as an Other, always contains a potential of irrationality and evil.