Excess, Sex & Elevation
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Authors
Shuker, Ronald Kurt
Issue Date
2006-01
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Sex , Self (Philosophy) , Levinas, Emmanuel , Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 , Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881 , Truth , Desire (Philosophy)
Alternative Title
Abstract
Excess, Sex & Elevation is an attempt to understand the desire for truth in the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Nothing is said about what truth is, but rather why it is wanted and how it is sought. Despite their different religious beliefs (Levinas a Jew, Nietzsche an atheist, Dostoevsky a Christian), the three thinkers hold remarkably similar conceptions of truth. Truth is an individual pursuit -- upwards. The self experiences a crisis of conscience upon discovering its originary excess, which is sex. The self suffers spiritually for what it is physically through the art of ascesis, turning the lust for sex into the desire for truth. And therein begins the self's elevation to the heights of truth.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Institute for Christian Studies