Butler’s Ethical Appeal
Butler’s Ethical Appeal
Being, Feeling and Acting Responsible
In Precarious Life and Giving an Account of Oneself, Judith Butler seemed to follow Levinas in suggesting the facticity of ethics: we have a responsibility to others, regardless of how we feel about it (or them). In Frames of War, however, ‘affect’ figures prominently for ethical responsiveness. But while the word runs heavily through this text the idea of affect remains under-theorised. This chapter examines what Butler means by affect, consider why she invokes affect, and examine how she thinks we can restructure our senses to be ’private resources’ for ethical responsiveness.
Keywords: Judith Butler, Ethics, Affect, Politics, Responsibility, Responsiveness
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