The 'Self' of Ibn Hazm and levinas and ethical issues stemming from the self

The self for mankind as an ethical being is both indispensable and full of traps. These traps are sometimes within the man himself and sometimes show itself with an external factor. Mankind generally applies to two types of sources in order to protect himself from such traps, in other words to become an individual with the appropriate ethics, each of which are divine inspiration and mind. Both the two have been aiming at the happiness of mankind and reformation of his soul. Due to the fact that it is a result which would be obtained within a process and with intense efforts, each individual worries about this. This worry is bilateral, one being the temporary and the other being the worry to approach the (divine) truth. The relations of ego with others, the relations of ego with the God and the relations of ego with his own self are deterministic and these three types of relations construct the self. To a great extent, mankind's relations with the God are metaphysical, its relations with others are ethical and its relations with his own self is both metaphysical and ethical. These relations are interconnected with one another and attach meaning and responsibility to the mankind as an ethical being. This study is conducted comparatively on the self and issues stemming from the self by means of considering the approaches of İbn Hazm, an Islamic thinker, and Levinas, a French philosopher and their opinions.