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Questions tagged [levinas]

Emmanuel Levinas was a Jewish philosopher during World War 2. He studied under Martin Heidegger. He wrote theories, that were divergent from common thought practices of the day, on ethics and ethical practices as well as metaphysics.

Emmanuel Levinas was a Jewish philosopher during World War 2. He studied under Martin Heidegger. He wrote divergent theories on ethics and ethical practices as well as metaphysics.

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The enunciation clause (Lyotard & Levinas)

As kind of introductory remark, let me state that I'm not academically-trained in philosophy, so my apologies if this comes up as a rather simple question. I was reading Logique de Levinas by JF Lyotard, and I came upon, at the very beginning of the…
Hermès
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If we forget why do we acquire knowledge which by the way gets outdated?

We learn then we forget. It might seem to be a waste of precious time subtracted from life. Some time ago I started to write every day two things (yes, only two) I learn every day. One column for thing things that are totally new to me and other…
KwanzaKymi
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How might aesthetics be radically Other?

I've read a handful of book by or about Levinas, but some time ago and without notes. IIRC his central ethical theme is that other people are not an aspect of the self, that our obligation to them exists in their being irreducible to…
user6917
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Is Levinas only interested in kind of universal Otherness?

Do I "encounter" the Other if I do not know what my "responsibilities" to them are? rather than formulating an ethical theory, Levinas developed his philosophy in opposition to both these aforementioned approaches. It takes the form of a…
user64727
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What does it mean a to appear in a "pantomathic" way?

I'm reading Levinas' book "From God who comes to the idea" (a Google translate from "De Dieu qui vient à l'idée"), and in the chapter "questions and answers" (a Q&A Levinas had with Dutch philosophers) appears a line "the other appears in a…
Yechiam Weiss
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What are the origins of "The Other" and "The Gaze" in critical theory?

These two terms were for a time ubiquitous--one is tempted to say boilerplate--in critical theory. My own vague understanding is that Levinas is first to explicitly focus on "The Other" and Sartre first to specify "The Gaze," though both concepts,…
Nelson Alexander
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Levinas' good/evil compared to Kantian good/evil

In "transcendence and evil", Levinas gives an account of how good and evil are not merely opposites, and would be better fit for description in a venn diagram (as a synopsis for those that haven't read it). Would this compare to the kantian musing…
NationWidePants
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Is Levinas using an original form of causation?

I don't remember the exact reference so it might be a bit hard to understand my question, but I'll try to draw the general idea that I understand Levinas to be using. Levinas puts a kind of connection between two events like this: consider event A…
Yechiam Weiss
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How does Badiou summarise Levinas' approach to ethics?

In Badiou’s opening paragraphs he offers an account of Lévinas’s concern with philosophy and its hostility to an ethical relation to the Other. In Badiou’s characterisation of Lévinas, why is it impossible to ‘arrive at authentic thought of the…
Malik
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Does anyone claim freedom toward death is not for me, but for others?

My "freedom toward death" (Being and Time, p255, SUNY Press, 1 Jan 1996) is key for authenticity, according to Heidegger. It seems obvious that he means that this freedom is me, and that claim for be found in the secondary literature (where it is…
user38026