Næstekærlighed – eller Krarup med Lacan

This article is an attempt to problematize the commandmentof neighbor-love through a comparative reading of Søren Krarup andJacques Lacan. Inspired by Lacan’s essay "Kant avec Sade", the articleproposes that Lacan’s refl ections on the ethics of psychoanalysis illustratethe radicalism and limitations of Krarup’s reading of the injunctionto love one’s neighbor. After a short presentation of Krarup’s positionthe article outlines a number of differences and some similaritiesbetween this position and Lacan’s position. Against Krarup and withLacan the article argues that the commandment of neighbor-love is obscure.The last section of the article addresses the question of what itmeans to be someone’s neighbor. Two viewpoints are contrasted: onethat implicitly claims that the basis of neighbor-love is that in the endwe are all capable of doing good, and another that claims that the basisof neighbor-love is that we are all strangers to ourselves.