Levinas on Discourse (or how to not have a monologue when talking to people)

Can objectivity and the universality of thought be founded on discourse? Is not universal thought of itself prior to discourse? Does not a mind in speaking evoke what the other mind already thinks, both of them participating in common ideas? But the community of thought ought to have made language as a relation between beings impossible. Coherent discourse is one. A universal thought dispenses with communication. A reason cannot be other for a reason. How can a reason be an I or an other, since its very being consists in renouncing singularity? …

But to make of the thinker a moment of thought is to limit the revealing function of language to its coherence, conveying the coherence of concepts. In this coherence the unique I of the thinker volatilizes. The function of language would amount to suppressing “the other,” who breaks this coherence and is hence essentially irrational. A curious result: language would consist in suppressing the other, in making the other agree with the same! But in its expressive function language institutes a relation irreducible to the subject-object relation: the revelation of the other. In this revelation only can language as a system of signs be constituted. The other called upon is not something open to generalization. Language, far from presupposing universality and generality, first makes them possible. Language presupposes interlocutors, a plurality. Their commerce is not a representation of the one by the other, nor a participation in universality, on the common plane of language. Their commerce ... is ethical.

2 Year Agreement (with myself)

To any of you, if there are any, who missed my writing, I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post. Since then, I've had semester finals, a move back home for a brief summer, and a jump right back into hectic work weeks and friend-filled weekends. That leaves little time for blogging but, with the conclusion of a rather significant period of time ending soon, I felt it was necessary to devote a bit of time to it.

Two years ago, give or take a day (take one), I ended my last high school relationship. After a bit of time, I realized that almost the entire two years previous (50% of high school!!), I had been in a dating relationship of some type. There was a lot of good things to come from those two years, and I certainly learned things from them that I could have obtained in no other way.  But I decided that the next two years of my life were going to be drastically different than the previous ones and that college was going to entail a much different outlook than high school. As a result, I formed a sort of 2-year pact with myself that I was going to remain single and devote those years to myself, to my education, to experiencing life, and to do all of this while not being restricted in any form by a relationship. (Disclaimer!!!: I know that not all relationships are chains and whips. But, if I were to truly care about someone, I would want to treat them properly and give them the time they deserve. And that necessarily takes time away from other things that were to go on in those first couple of years in college.)

Well believe it or not (believe it), that pact will come into completion tomorrow, June 1st. That is correct. Two years have passed and I have remained 100% single for the entire two years.

In retrospect, quite a lot has resulted from my decision, most, if not all, of it for the better. As of right now, I can only see good stemming from it. Who knows, that could change. I do know there was a (now) noticeable psychological effect on me. It was something that I didn't fully discover until a few days ago, but I fully believe it was there the whole time. However, it seems to not have caused a problem.  Luckily I was able to see it and begin working against it. 

So I guess one thing I can offer to anyone who would consider making a resolution of any type, is try to recognize what it would actually create within you. Try to see how a given resolution would affect your mind and your outlook on the world and those around you. A noble goal may create some unforeseen stepping stones along the way that may not be so good to have in your possession. 

Where do I go from here? Who knows... (actually I might). Regardless, I step forward into a new period of my life, using all the information I've gained from the past two years, taking on new things as they come, and experiencing life all along the way... with whomever may be experiencing it there with me.

         .....ladies.