Interbeing and The “Ethical Echo” of Levinas: Exploring Communication Ethics beyond Willed Agency

Abstract

This essay is concerned with the question of otherness in relation to moral responsibility, and willed-agency. It aims to continue and expand the discussion lead by Arnett's question “What might a communication ethics look like that does not begin with a sense of will?” and offers a comparative discussion of Levinasian ethics—that highlight absolute otherness and maintenance of alterity at the heart of the ethical relation—with Thich Nhat Hanh's (pronounced as Tik N′yat Hawn) culturally–philosophically “other” framework of (Buddhist) ethics based on the notion of Interbeing. Levinas and Hanh offer culturally diverse—and, equally important—ways of making sense of alterity, maintaining alterity, and reciprocity, in the ethical relation. Despite their differences, however, both Levinas and Hanh highlight responsibility for the Other as engrained in subjectivity—an ethical subjectivity,—and attentiveness for the Other beyond willed agency. Juxtaposing their culturally different philosophies make room for a deeper and layered exploration and understanding of communication ethics in relation to agency. Furthermore, putting them in conversation reminds us of the cultural embeddedness of concepts in exploring communication ethics, and encourage further interculturally comprehensive scholarship that is articulate and aware of its epistemological and ontological assumptions/biases. This essay alerts us to attend to the ground on which the ethical relation is situated in making sense of diverse cultural traditions that promote varied understandings of ethics.