Will and Others

Insofar as Will is conceived, as is generally the case, to be fundamentally at the service of private ulterior ends, its scope is completely selfish. However, insofar as it is defined, as it is here, as the principle of Diversification in Experience, Will, in combination with the equivalence, proposed by Levinas, of Alterity and Exteriority, can be recognized as the ground of Being-towards-others. One flaw in Heidegger's analysis of Experience is to dismiss gregariousness as an Ontological deficiency, rather than to appreciate the constructive dimension of seeking the company of others, even if it risks degenerating into losing oneself in others. Likewise, Will is the origin of other-oriented principles such as Sympathy and Kantian Respect, as well as is the ground of Aristotle's thesis that humans are by nature political beings.