International Studies in Philosophy Monograph Series

2005

The Gift of Self

Stephen David Ross
Pages 153-172

Self and Other

To take up only the most beautiful, as yet to be made manifest in the realm of time and space, there are angels. These messengers who never remain enclosed in a place, who are also never immobile .... Endlessly reopening the enclosure of the universe, of universes, identities, the unfolding of actions, of history. The angel is that which unceasingly passes through the envelope(s) or container(s), goes from one side to the other, reworking every deadline, changing every decision, thwarting all repetition ... they come' to herald the arrival of a new birth, a new morning. (Irigaray, ESD, 15) In the absence of civil laws positively defining their real rights and duties, the only criteria women have to refer to are subjective ones.... But as long as there are no laws or rules which all women-and all men-may refer to and invoke when making their decisions, there can be no democracy, however attractive the immediate allegiance of a collectivity to a proposition may be. (Irigaray, ILTY, 1-2)