Asymmetrical Ethics: Lessons from Pregnancy, Horses, and BDSM
摘要
This essay explores the possibility of conceptualizing an asymmetrical ethics, with the vantage point that ethics is not only something required for asymmetrical relations but also something itself which requires asymmetry to arise. We expand on previous thinking on the importance of the asymmetrical to the ethical by elaborating three concrete examples of real-world praxis. In our summary of the theoretical background, we first show how Feminist ethics has developed from being a project aiming at the dismantling of the unjust asymmetries of the social world into an appeal to not unjustly impose symmetry in a violent fashion. We then explicate Emanuel Levinas’ reconceptualization of the ethical attitude as an asymmetrical attitude of openness to the other, to then show how Adriana Cavarero develops this openness to the other into a cherishing of the singularity of life. We go on to introduce our own contribution, presenting the three examples of Pregnancy, Horse-riding, and BDSM as concrete situations where asymmetry must not only be ethical to be defensible but ethics must also be asymmetrical to be applicable. We conclude by discussing how the asymmetrical ethical dimension of these three examples offers new ways of conceptualizing responsibility and pleasure in relations of power.