Abstract
If individuals who are different, as man and woman, are considered to be opposite, their relationship needs a mediation external to them and neutral regarding what opposes them. Hence, the resort to law, morality, custom and so forth, supposedly to be neutral, whereas they are often imposed by only one of the two sides. If the individuals are acknowledged as qualitatively different, the mediation has not to be imposed from the outside and be merely in the neuter. They are the individuals themselves who can provide the mediation by their want to enter into relationship with one another. This want can resort to the mediation of touch and the energy of a desire that each endeavours to modulate in order to unite with the other. Henceforth, what unites the two—notably the copula—is no longer dependent on a decision of understanding as an inanimate mediation; it is a dynamic process inspired by a will to become of life in a way suitable for humanity.
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Irigaray, L. (2024). A History Cut Off from Germ Cells. In: The Mediation of Touch. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37413-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37413-5_7
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37413-5
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