Ego

"...cause for the I as I, that is not just because of the possibility of death within being, the "possibility of the impossible", but already because of the possibility of sacrifice, the birth of meaning within the dorkiness of being, the subordination of "the ability to die" to the "ability to sacrifice oneself"." - Emmanuel Levinas, Die Versuchung der Versuchung/ The Temptation of Temptation, translation by me