If you feel that you've acquitted yourself honorably, then you're not so ethical. If you...
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Avital Ronell:
This is something that Derrida has taught: if you feel that you've acquitted yourself honorably, then you're not so ethical. If you have a good conscience, then you're kind of worthless. Like, if you think, oh, I gave this homeless person five bucks, I'm great! then you're irresponsible. The responsible being is one who thinks they've never been responsible enough, they've never taken care enough of "the other". The other is so in excess of anything you can understand or grasp or reduce. This, in itself, creates an ethical relatedness. A relation without relation. Because you can't presume to know or grasp the other. The minute you think you know the other, you're ready to kill them. You think, oh, they're doing this or this, they're the axis of evil. Let's drop some bombs. But, if don't know, if you don't understand this alterity, you can't violate it with your sense of understanding, then you have to let it live, in a sense
This is something that Derrida has taught: if you feel that you've acquitted yourself honorably, then you're not so ethical. If you have a good conscience, then you're kind of worthless. Like, if you think, oh, I gave this homeless person five bucks, I'm great! then you're irresponsible. The responsible being is one who thinks they've never been responsible enough, they've never taken care enough of "the other". The other is so in excess of anything you can understand or grasp or reduce. This, in itself, creates an ethical relatedness. A relation without relation. Because you can't presume to know or grasp the other. The minute you think you know the other, you're ready to kill them. You think, oh, they're doing this or this, they're the axis of evil. Let's drop some bombs. But, if don't know, if you don't understand this alterity, you can't violate it with your sense of understanding, then you have to let it live, in a sense
Full Transcript
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This is something that Derrida has taught
00:00:03.402 --> 00:00:07.702
If you feel that you've acquitted yourself honorably
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then you're not so ethical
00:00:09.775 --> 00:00:13.541
If you have a good conscience then you're kind of worthless
00:00:13.612 --> 00:00:16.945
Like if you think Oh I gave this homeless person five bucks
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I'm great then you're irresponsible
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The responsible being is one who thinks
00:00:22.955 --> 00:00:25.617
they've never been responsible enough
00:00:25.691 --> 00:00:29.388
They've never taken care enough of the Other
00:00:29.462 --> 00:00:33.125
The Other is so in excess
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Movie Summary
In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.
