Sexual Difference as a Question of Ethics: Alterities of the Flesh in Irigaray and Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

This article crosses the approach of the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray, making reference mainly to her work An Ethics of Sexual Difference and the philosopher Merleau-Ponty, highlighting, especially, the chapter "The Intertwining- the Chiasm," of the book The Visible and the Invisible. The first author quoted has a kind of relation of ambivalence and self-subordination in the way she puts herself in front of the texts of male philosophers, attributing power to them. Incorporating for her own text the philosophical tradition. Irigaray gets involved with Merleau-Ponty by an "interweaving", which will characterize the relations of flesh. It is worth noting that this article is unified by the purpose of the elaboration of what Irigaray calls an ethical relationship between the sexes. For her this relationship consists of the question "Who are you?” The vast debate involving ethics, sexual difference, and otherness of the flesh is being woven under the analysis of the two great philosophers mentioned.

Keywords

• Sexual difference
• Ethics
• Alterity
• Irigaray
• Merleau-Ponty