The Imperative to Live Fully
1, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. karim@plethora.nl.
Abstract:
How did a philosopher who celebrated eccentricity, eroticism, and excess come to embrace the starkest of normative concepts, the imperative? This essay explores this productive tension in the work and life of Alphonso Lingis (1933-2025), drawing on a philosophical exchange and friendship spanning more than three decades. Lingis adapted Kant's concept of the imperative to argue that we are summoned, before and beyond reason, to accompany the dying, to respond to the elemental forces of nature, and to honour the singular gift of our lives by dedicating ourselves to the task that calls to us. Lingis's thinking resonates with Emmanuel Levinas's grounding of ethics in the vulnerability of the face of the Other, yet he anchored his imperative in deeply personal encounters with strangers who risked everything to save him. This personal and philosophical tribute traces how his extraordinary, unconventional life exemplified his insistence that we are all under an imperative to live fully.
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