Episode 139: Neighbors
Released September 16th, 2025
What does it mean to love thy neighbor? And who counts as a neighbor in the first place? In episode 139 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about neighbors. They think through the parasocial relationships that hold between us and those who live near us, how the values of our neighbors affect our lives, and how neighborly relations blur the public/private distinction. They use the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of the neighbor as “the Other” to think about the experience of moral responsibility. And they consider how our relationships with neighbors differ from other relationships? To what extent do we choose our neighbors? How do wealth and class shape our experience of living-with-others? And what actually makes a neighbor a neighbor? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts question whether we have specific ethical obligations to our neighbors and discuss cultural differences in how people view their neighbors.
Works Discussed
Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties”
Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being
Hannu Ruonavaara, “The Anatomy of Neighbour Relations”
Anna Strhan, “And Who is My Neighbour? Levinas and the Commandment to Love Re-examined”
