ABSTRACT
It has become apparent in the previous chapters that ethics has a spatial element. As Kuki explains in Iki no kōzō, the spatial nature of ethics results from the fact that ethics must be understood in the context of a relationship between two people. The model for this type of relationship is characterized by iki, in which the absolute otherness of the other is preserved. The erotic nature of this relationship arouses both an awareness of the other and the necessity of responding to the other. However, a number of refinements of this characterization of ethics as spatial are necessary. First, we need to develop an understanding of the relationship between spatiality and temporality. In Iki no kōzō, we have seen a prototype of the ethical relationship, but have not yet fully understood why this relationship is an ethical one. Second, we must deepen our understanding of the specific way in which the phenomenal appearance of the other evokes an ethical response. Last, we should characterize the ethical demand itself and the call to action which it engenders: to whom are we responsible and in what does our responsibility consist?
