A Comparative Analysis Of The Theory Of Conscience Proposed By Heidegger、Kant And Levinas

Although conscience is not a central concept in the history of western philosophy,there are not a few philosophers who have always paid attention to the question of conscience.This paper mainly focuses on the thought of conscience of three people: Kant,Heidegger and Levinas,and discusses it from the three dimensions of the conscience: the inner、survival and the other.With Heidegger’s thought of conscience as the main line,trying to clarify the connection and similarities between Heidegger’s conscience theory and the other two philosophers’ philosophical thoughts.Kant defines conscience as a formalist moral judgment,he use the "inner court" as a metaphor for conscience,which is a kind of cognitive conscience of transcendental subjectivity.Although Kant’s philosophy has obvious anti-traditional tendencies,Heidegger still regards the Kant conscience theory as a representative of the popular conscience theory.He believes that Kant still regards conscience as a ready-made existence.Heidegger takes a different approach and regards the conscience as a witness to the true existence of Dasein in everyday life.His conscience is about the conscience of survival.Levinas is deeply influenced by Heidegger’s philosophy,but he believes that Heidegger’s analysis has a obvious subjectivity tendency which is the same as traditional philosophical.Levinas pointed out that Heidegger’s ontology ignores and even kills "otherness".Therefore,Levinas proposed a conscience about the other,and pointed out that the response of the encounter between the self and the other awakened my conscience,he demanded that we should be accountable to others.