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The Enigma of the Face

Summary/Abstract: The metaphor of the face is the central and simultaneously the most problematic concept of the philosophy of dialogue. Any attempt at cognitively ‘grasping’ the face of the Other involves numerous tensions which may be conveyed in a series of opposites such as: literality—metaphoricity, experience—encounter, concreteness—generality, and question—answer. The face cannot be reduced to either of the opposing poles, and it must be inevitably placed in-between them. Still the ‘in-between’ situation of the face is not tantamount to inertia since it causes a continuous dynamism responsible for the fact that the metaphor of the face is always ambiguous and imprecise. On the one hand, the problem of ‘grasping’ the face may be seen as evidence pointing to a weakness in human thinking. Yet on the other hand, the indeterminateness of the face might reflect the only way to think the ‘Other’ as actually other, continuously evading philosophical categorization.

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