You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover

by Mark Cinco

31 January 2013
Discussed Text: Levinas, "The Face," Ethics and Infinity


Philo class has always been one of those subjects where I get the time to understand more about the things I ponder upon. I’m the type of person who always observes my surroundings and asks myself how that something that I saw came to be or what its characteristics are. I also look for a concrete answer rather than believing that a greater Being was the cause for it. The hardest thing that I can think about is the existence of the people that I see in my surroundings. Our lecture on The Face has helped me make more logical assumptions or theories as to what that Other is. I say ‘logical’ because during my early teenage life, I asked myself if it was plausible if I’m the only Being that has the capacity to think and that the people around me, including my family, are just being controlled by a greater being. It’s a bit funny to think that I arrived at an assumption as silly as that;but of course, even understanding The Other as Face is also in itself, difficult for a normal student such as myself.

I’m happy that we tackled this topic because it got to answer a lot of the things that I thought about in the past on the existence of others. Through observation, the first think that I notice, as how others do, is the physical characteristics. The study on The Face clearly tells us to gaze upon the other because its reality is both seen and unseen. To know more about the other, given the chance, try to be friends with that other so as to learn more about that person. Becoming friends or at least be acquainted with them is the first step to understanding the Being of that person. It is true that we cannot fully synthesize any person because we cannot fully learn everything about that person. So whenever I hear people say that they know a person so well that they can predict their next action or decision, I tell myself that they are wrong because that person they accuse of knowing is capable of things beyond their knowledge on that person.

Another important aspect of The Face is that the meaning comes from the other but not from me. An example I can give is parents who want their children to pursue a career like theirs. Though there are still parents who think like this, I believe that it is wrong for them to tell their children how they should live their life. Every person has an equal chance of giving their own meaning to their lives. Letting others do that will eventually make a person live a sad life. This is why we should not define a person based on who or what he/she is but experience who that person is. It is through this experience where we can truly understand more because the reality of the other puts us into question. It is also not a good practice to look at a person such as “the son of”, “friend of”, etc… because this will have an effect on how we look at this person.
With all the concepts learned from the discussion about The Face, I believe I can become more understanding on who a person is, how he/she came to be, or how that person acts. I think I’ll be more open to more logical theories and assumptions as I continue to think more about myself and the Other. Truly, you can’t judge a book by its cover.