vbid/9783031193057

Description

Many scholars have struggled with Irigaray�s focus on sexuate difference, in particular with her claim that it is �ontological,� wondering if this implies a problematically na�ve or essentialist account of sexuate difference. As a result, the ethical vision which Irigaray elaborates has not been taken up in a robust way in the fields of philosophy, feminism, or psychoanalysis. By tracing the notion of relation throughout Irigaray�s work, this book�identifies a rigorous philosophical continuity between the three self-identified �phases� in Irigaray�s thought (despite some critics� concerns that there is a discontinuity between these phases) and clarifies the relational ontology that underlies Irigaray�s conceptualization of sexuate difference � one that�always already implies an ethical project. The text demonstrates that an understanding of Irigaray�s Heideggerian inheritance � especially prominent in her later texts � is essential to grasping the sense of the idea that sexuate difference is ontological � it concerns Being, rather than beings.�This book further develops potential applications of this ontological notion of a �relational limit� for the fields of philosophy, feminism, and psychotherapy.Typham this is the title: Being as Relation in Luce Irigaray