The third party. Levinas on the intersection of the ethical and the political

Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 76-87

  Bernasconi, Robert ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 85010745973     PISSN: 00071773     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00071773.1999.11008545     Document Type: Article

References (16)

1. There are some noteworthy exceptions. See especially Simon Critchley, The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), pp. 225–237; and Adriaan Peperzak, To the Other, (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1993), pp. 167–184.
2. E., Levinasn, “Le moi et la totalité”. Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 59, 1954, pp. 353–373: trans. A. Lingis, “The Ego and the Totality”, Collected Philosophical Papers. (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987), pp. 25–45. Henceforth MP and CP respectively. Reprinted in Entre nous, Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1991. pp. 25–52. Henceforth EN.
3. E., Levinas, Totalité et Infini, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1961), pp. 187–190; trans. A. Lingis, Totality and Infinity, (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969), pp. 212–214. Henceforth Tel and TI respectively.
4. E., Levinas, Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974), pp. 195–207; trans. A. Lingis, Otherwise than being or beyond essence, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981), pp. 153–162. Henceforth AE and OB respectively.
5. E., Levinas, “Enigme et phénomène”. En découvrant l'existence avec Husserl et Heidegger, (Paris: Vrin, 1974), p. 214; trans. A. Lingis, “Phenomenon and Enigma”, CP 71. En découvrant l'existence henceforth abbreviated as EDE. The third person singular in the grammatical sense should not be confused with the third person perspective of reason.
6. Subsequently Levinas not only developed a more conciliatory approach to Christianity and its themes of love and forgiveness, but he also gave love a more prominent role in his thinking. In a 1982 interview Levinas declared that “Justice proceeds from love” and that “love ought always to watch over justice”. E., Levinas, “Philosophie, justice et amour”. Espirit, 1983, nos. 8–9, p. 11. Reprinted at EN 126.
7. E., Levinas, “Transcendance et Hauteur”, Bulletin de la Société française de Philosophie, 1962, vol.3, p. 102; trans. T. Charter, N. Walker, and S. Critchley, “Transcendence and Height”, Lévinas. Basic Philosophical Writings, (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1996), p. 23. Henceforth TH and BPW respectively.
8. E., Lévinas, “Paix et proximité”, Emmanuel Lévinas. Les Cahiers de La nuit surveillée, ed. Jacques Rolland, (Lagrasse: Verdier, 1984), p. 345; trans. Peter Atterton and Simon Critchley, “Peace and Proximity”, BPW p. 168. “Peace and Proximity” henceforth abbreviated as Pp.
9. E., Levinas, “La signification et le sens”, Humanisme de l'autre homme, (Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1972), p. 63; trans. BPW 63–64. Henceforth HH. As the distinction of the trace and of illeity in “La Trace de l'autre”, except for a few omissions, is almost identical (EDE 197–202), to that found in “La signification et le sens”, I have used the latter. On illeity see Bernhard Casper, “Illéité. Zu einem Schlüssel ‘Begriff im Werk von Emmanuel Levinas”, Philosophisches Jahrbuch, 91, 1984, 00. 273–288.
10. I am not the first to recognize the political purchase of illeity. See Rebecca Comay, “Facies Hippocratica”, Ethics as First Philosophy, ed. Adriaan Peperzak, (New York: Routledge, 1995), p. 232: “But this nontheological theology is precisely politics.” E., Levinas and Alain Finkielkraut, “Israël: éthique et politique”, Les Nouveaux Cahiers 18, 1982–3; 71, p. 4; trans. Sean Hand, “Ethics and Politics”, The Lévinas Reader (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989), p. 292. Henceforth IE and LR respectively. I have taken a preliminary look at this controversial interview in “Who is my neighbor? Who is the other? Questioning ‘the Generosity of Western Thought’”, Ethics and Responsibility in the Phenomenological Tradition, (Pittsburgh: The Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, 1992), pp. 1–31.
11. E., Lévinas, “La souffrance inutile”, EN 119; trans. R. Cohen, “Useless Suffering”, The Provocation of Lévinas, p. 165. Henceforth US.
12. Levinas offered as an example Kurt Schilling's Einführung in die Staats-und Rechtsphilosophie, (Berlin: Junker und Dunnhaupt, 1939). Schilling founds the state on the natural connection of race and the mythical-historical connection of a people. See Tel 93n; TI 120n.
13. E., Lévinas, “Dieu et la philosophie”, De Dieu qui vient à l'idée, (Paris: Vrin, 1986), p. 117; trans. A. Lingis and R. Cohen, “God and Philosophy”, BPW 142. Henceforth DVI. See also AE 12; OB 10 and TH 107–108; BPW 27–28.
14. E., Lévinas, Difficile liberté, (Paris: Vrin, 1976), p. 34; trans. Sean Hand, Difficult Freedom, (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1990), p. 18.
15. E., Lévinas, L'au-delà du verset, (Paris: Minuit, 1982), p. 133; trans. Gray D. Mole, Beyond the Verse, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), p. 107.
16. A slightly longer version of this paper is available in Antje Kapust's German translation as “Wer ist der Dritte? Überkreuzung von Ethik und Politik bei Levinas”, Der Anspruch des Anderen, eds. B., Waldenfels and I., Därmann, Munich, Wilhelm Fink, 1998, pp. 87–110. Some remarks about Levinas's treatment of race and racism have had to be removed from the present version to meet the word limit. I would like to thank Claus-Arthur Scheier, Pascal Delhoum, and Claire Katz for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.