Næstekærlighed – eller Krarup med Lacan

Abstract

This article is an attempt to problematize the commandment
of neighbor-love through a comparative reading of Søren Krarup and
Jacques Lacan. Inspired by Lacan’s essay "Kant avec Sade", the article
proposes that Lacan’s refl ections on the ethics of psychoanalysis illustrate
the radicalism and limitations of Krarup’s reading of the injunction
to love one’s neighbor. After a short presentation of Krarup’s position
the article outlines a number of differences and some similarities
between this position and Lacan’s position. Against Krarup and with
Lacan the article argues that the commandment of neighbor-love is obscure.
The last section of the article addresses the question of what it
means to be someone’s neighbor. Two viewpoints are contrasted: one
that implicitly claims that the basis of neighbor-love is that in the end
we are all capable of doing good, and another that claims that the basis
of neighbor-love is that we are all strangers to ourselves.