Reflections about education, alteration and violence from the conception of subjective constitution in Levinas

Abstract

The article proposes to explore the Levinasian conception about the constitution of the subjectivity in the perspective of a contemporary thought in overcoming to the philosophies of the consciousness of the modernity. In this course of exploration of the constituent subjectivity special attention is paid to the theme of sensitivity, to which Emmanuel Levinas associates to the ethical awakening of humanity. Throughout the text it is speculated a possible descriptive explanation for the manifestation of violence in the first manifestations of the formation of the Self, still previous to its full subjective constitution. The argument for this is that the self that deals with the world as possession and satisfaction is not yet in a position to perceive the presence of the Other as alterity, but takes it as a threat to its maintenance in the world. In order to derive an educational reflection on alterity and violence, it is analyzed in particular, the potential of the Levinasian concept of sensitivity, associated to the reception and Face conceptions.