Documenting our Landscape

The difference between Buber’s “I” and “thou” is, according to both Derrida and Levinas, much the same as the difference between the ego and the other existing in what might be called a transcendental symmetry. To me you are the other while I remain me yet to you I am the other while you remain you. This symmetry is a symmetry of difference without the ability to reduce the relationship to the same. Transcendental symmetry requires that there be a gap between two individuals that is filled with opportunities to negotiate mis-understandings, mis-representations, mis-takes and so on. It is through the mis- that one positively negotiates relationships, shuns binary oppositions as solutions, reaches out to be response-able for the other.