Essential vulnerabilities : Plato and Levinas on relations to the other In Essential Vulnerabilities Deborah Achtenberg contests Emmanuel Levinass idea that Plato is a philosopher of freedom for whom thought is a return to the self. Instead Plato like Levinas is a philosopher of the other. Nonetheless Achtenberg argues Plato and Levinas are different. Though they share the view that human beings are essentially vulnerable and essentially in relation to others they conceive human vulnerability and responsiveness differently. For Plato when we see beautiful others we are overwhelmed by the beauty of what is by the vision of eternal form. For Levinas we are disrupted by the newness foreignness or singularity of the other. The other for him is new or foreign not eternal. The other is unknowable singularity. By showing these similarities and differences Achtenberg resituates Plato in relation to Levinas and opens up two contrasting ways that self is essentially in relation to others. Page 4 of cover Violence Freedom Creation Knowledge Time and the self Violence freedom creation knowledge Glory and shine Conclusion