The Irreducible Other, The Second Sex Meets This Sex Which is Not One

This book suggests that Beauvoir and Irigaray can
find a meeting place. Conversation is possible.
Irigaray challenges Beauvoir's ontology and ethics.
This involves a questioning of epistemology and
metaphysics as well. Yet Beauvoir and Irigaray
sought to include women as subjects. Beauvoir was on
the verge of a new ontology, alluded to sexed
subjectivity but reproduced sexual sameness.
Irigaray posits a new ontology, considers the debt
to the mother, sexuate rights and a feminine
symbolic and divine. But their philosophies seem to
be incommensurate. The men in their lives provide a
partial connection. Sartre and Levi-Strauss invite
us to explore existentialism and structuralism.
Freud and Lacan enable us to reconsider
psychoanalysis and sexual specificity. Levinas
brings us into a stronger relationship with
phenomenology and ethics. This book seeks to find
the places and the spaces to forge authentic
relationships with the other sex valuing sexual
difference. There are possibilities for generous
listening and speaking. The ethical challenges and
existential conundrums of today force us to try
harder to create positive possibilities.

Autorentext
Lesley Caust was awarded her PhD in Philosophy from Monash University in 2007. An article, 'Community, Autonomy and Justice: the gender politics of identity and relationship' was published in 'The History of European Ideas' Journal, 1993. She gave papers on education, emotional intelligence and film in Glasgow and Oxford, July, 2008.

Klappentext
This book suggests that Beauvoir and Irigaray can find a meeting place. Conversation is possible. Irigaray challenges Beauvoir's ontology and ethics. This involves a questioning of epistemology and metaphysics as well. Yet Beauvoir and Irigaray sought to include women as subjects. Beauvoir was on the verge of a new ontology, alluded to sexed subjectivity but reproduced sexual sameness. Irigaray posits a new ontology, considers the debt to the mother, sexuate rights and a feminine symbolic and divine. But their philosophies seem to be incommensurate. The men in their lives provide a partial connection. Sartre and Levi-Strauss invite us to explore existentialism and structuralism. Freud and Lacan enable us to reconsider psychoanalysis and sexual specificity. Levinas brings us into a stronger relationship with phenomenology and ethics. This book seeks to find the places and the spaces to forge authentic relationships with the other sex valuing sexual difference. There are possibilities for generous listening and speaking. The ethical challenges and existential conundrums of today force us to try harder to create positive possibilities.