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Why do we seek to escape from ourselves? In episode 168 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Emmanuel Levinas’s article “On Escape.” They discuss Levinas’s claim that escape is central to the human condition and explore what exactly we try to escape from and escape to. They explain how this aspect of human existence is crystallized by our experiences of need, pleasure, and even nausea. Are we condemned to being needy beings? How does Levinas’s view of shame put him at a distance from Sartre? And is Levinas right that to be a human is to never be at peace with oneself? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss why escape is the condition of our time and critique Levinas’s reading of idealism.

Works Discussed:

Emmanuel Levinas, “On Escape”Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

Highlight: Levinas on the Human Condition

* Levinas believes that being human means not being at peace with yourself

* David mentions two important terms to understanding Levinas:

* Escape

* We, by our very nature, are constantly seeking to escape who and what we are

* Impotence

* We seek to escape, but we fail every time

* We’re left with the combination of desire and a yearning for departure that can never come to fruition

* This was a very basic introduction, so listen to the episode to hear Ellie & David grapple with more of Levinas’s ideas :)