The Philosophy Of The Face.docx

The Relationship of the Face to the Ethics and Justice in our Modern World; An Ethical Reflection As stated in the Philosophy of the Face “Man’s moral existence, the person that he is, only finds its meaning in his being for the other.”, and it’s true. Our existence serves a purpose, and this purpose refers to our consideration of not just our self but also of other people in our thoughts, words, and actions. But it’s not just simply that. When we dig deeper into what does the face that we see has to do with us, we’ll have a better grasp of our obligation to prevail justice and to do good in our modern world. Truly, we exist for the good of other, and the “other” refers to the face that man sees. As we exist in this modern world we are confronted by the sad reality of life, by the suffering, impunity, indifference and injustice. And have we ever thought about why does this reality in life even exist or is exposed to us? Well, it’s because of other person’s living presence, wherein the other person is simply living as the undeniable reality. Living presence comes with acceptance, and this acceptance refers to our responsibility not to ourselves but to what faces we see every single day. When we say face, we refer to the human face that makes the other person more exposed, more expressive and more vulnerable to us. Every single day, we see faces that speaks, faces of those begging for food or money, looking for food in the trash, sleeping on the sidewalk, being victims of crimes and being deprived of justice. However, not all of us can see these, because most of us tend to look away when confronted by these. Or even if we choose to see things, it still ends up being rejected. By rejected, I mean, we tend to just disregard the fact that other people suffers because we are not. We become aware of what’s happening around us but we do not do something for it, and yet we complain. We complain for the face of the poor, for the face of the abandoned children, for the face of the marginalized, or of the starving children, and yet we do not see that these faces do not need our bark, it needs our actions. They don’t need our recognition of the indifference in the society, they need our attention to get away from these, and in order to do this, our face has to accept the responsibility that comes with our ability to see reality, instead of rejecting it. Now, what does the face has to do with the ethics in our modern world? As we all know, we as human beings possesses a sense of right and wrong, and in whatever circumstances we are obliged to do what is good. When we say good, it doesn’t refer to our own good, but for the good

of others. We cannot deny that some people are more concerned with their self-image that instead of taking good care of the other, they are just doing nothing except to build an image for themselves. We shouldn’t only desire to do good for our own survival, because we are co-existing with others, it makes us involved with the other face, it makes us deal with the essential nature of others. Our hope for a better society depends on our involvement with the other. The way we deal with the face we see, shouldn’t be out of our own desire to gain something for our own good. For instance, if one attends to the face of poor children, one will not fail to see the heartbreaking presence of starving children. With our ability to co-exist with others, we begin to care and we begin to recognize the “otherness of the other”. And by being able to co-exist with others, we must be responsible enough to do good in any circumstances, because only by doing good will change the lives of the poor people and will give hope to the people suffering. In terms of justice in our modern world, the face makes us realize how we lack justice. The presence of unending violence in our modern world speaks of the absence of our sense of responsibility. This is a result of the society’s lack of attention to the negative state of others. In order to truly reduce or even eradicate this violence is to recognize the presence of the face and to treat people in accordance with their actions. To act justly with the people that you see may make the people around you do the same. When we become responsible in our actions we give justice to the other. We give justice to the poor, we give justice to the marginalized, we give justice to those people who suffers, we give justice to those victims of violence. But justice doesn’t mean that we should all be equal, it’s about giving oneself what is due to him. Justice is not about knowing how oneself can be held accountable for his or her actions but at the same time submitting to the proper way of giving justice to the other. In General legal justice, for instance, a person does what is right for the good of whole community, this gives recognition to our responsibility to the other. In Particular legal justice, we does what is right by taking into consideration the right of the other. Amidst the injustice in our modern world, we should never forget to accept the responsibility that is given to us for the betterment of the other. We should refuse to not see the reality of life and let the justice always prevail. In taking into consideration the ethics and justice in the modern world, the face of the other calls the self to take responsibility for the other so that we are all and each responsible for the other,

even before ourselves. What is revealed by the face to face is our responsibility to put the other’s needs before our own.