Abstract
The only superficial contradiction between equality and equal treatment on the one hand and absolute alterity on the other hand is to be resolved in the fact that the former is owed to the latter, the absolutely irreplaceable individual. In essence, it is a matter of specifying the all-too-understandable demand for equality by distinguishing - with a view to the basic sameness of our existence - what we inevitably are from what we all too willingly want to be, and of asking to what extent a reality of the Same stands in the way of the dream of equality and what possibilities emerge for dealing with this reality in the best possible way.
Thus the guiding idea here is that only an analysis of the Same provides the necessary precondition for a clarification of dealing with the other person.