Closer Look: Levinas, On Escape

The Overthink podcast delves into Emmanuel Levinas's essay "On Escape," examining humanity's persistent desire to evade the human condition. The discussion highlights Levinas's concept of "ethics as first philosophy," contrasting it with Kant and Hegel, where ethics is secondary to epistemology or metaphysics. The hosts explore the tension between the human impulse to escape and the simultaneous inability to do so, leading to feelings of shame and malaise. Nausea is analyzed not merely as a physical sensation but as a concentrated form of the existential human condition, revealing the antagonism at the core of human existence. The podcast further investigates the role of need and pleasure, framing them as temporary appeasements within the broader context of our inescapable selves.