Meaning of Life in Fragile Wit(h)nessing: On Experiencing Radical Uniqueness as Gift and Grace

Abstract

In this comment-response Mikael Lindfelt makes some suggestions to how one could develop the argument for wit(h)nessing as experiencing meaningfulness in life as put forward by Nicole Note and Emilie Van Deale. While being positive to the main phenomenological approach, and especially the dialectical relational aspect of the phenomenological argument, Lindfelt uses Alain Badiou’s talk of Event in trying both to develop the phenomenological argument and to point out some idealistic tendencies in the line of the argument. Lindfelt suggests that the aspect of uniqueness in the relational experience of the other should be taken to more radically than suggested by Note and Van Deale. By pointing out the dialectical fragility of the Event of wit(h)nessing Lindfelt is arguing for that the concept of respect could be more utilized in arguing for the experience of meaning seen as a gift.