An abstaining stance towards otherness? An oikological approach to he practical aplicability of the Epoché
Abstract
The article investigates how it is possible to react to the encounter with the otherness of the Other without assimilating him or her, adapting to and losing itself in the Other, or simply with-drawing into oneself. This reaction is the practice of Epoché which is examined in its existential dimension as a performance or an act, leading to the question of where the freedom required by this performance comes from.
To provide an answer, the relation between otherness and the Epoché is then investigated following the approach of Hans Rainer Sepp's Oikol-ogy. Regarding Sepp's concepts of the liv-ing-body, the bodily-corporeal process of positioning itself of the human existence is analyzed and related to a primal experience of the otherness of the Other.
This reveals a form of primal Epoché towards the Other which sheds light on the possibility of using the pure resistance the encounter with him or her provides to perform the Epoché anew with each encounter. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the possibility to habituate this practical Epoché to take an abstaining stance towards the Other.