Levinas

On the Word Other in Levinas

by William Large

Published in The Journal for the British Society of Phenomenology, Volume 27, No 1, Jan. 1996, pp 36-52.

Against Liberty: Adorno, Levinas, and the Pathologies of Freedom

by Eric S. Nelson

(forthcoming) “Against Liberty: Adorno, Levinas, and the Pathologies of Freedom.” Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, vol. 59, number 131, June 2012, pp. 64-83.

Adorno and Levinas argue from distinct yet intersecting perspectives that there are pathological forms of freedom,... more Adorno and Levinas argue from distinct yet intersecting perspectives that there are pathological forms of freedom, formed by systems of power and economic exchange, which legitimate the neglect, exploitation, and domination of others. In this paper, I examine how the works of Adorno and Levinas assist in diagnosing the aporias of liberty in contemporary capitalist societies by providing critical models and strategies for confronting present discourses and systems of freedom that perpetuate unfreedom such as those ideologically expressed in possessive individualist and libertarian conceptions of freedom.

IMPERSONAL EXISTENCE: a conceptual genealogy of the “there is” from heidegger to blanchot and levinas

by William Large

A Brief History of Continental Realism

by Lee Braver

Continental Philosophy Review
DOI: 10.1007/s11007-012-9220-2

This paper explains the nature and origin of what I am calling Transgressive Realism, a middle path between realism... more This paper explains the nature and origin of what I am calling Transgressive Realism, a middle path between realism and anti-realism which tries to combine their strengths while avoiding their weaknesses. Kierkegaard created the position by merging Hegel’s insistence that we must have some kind of contact with anything we can call real (thus rejecting noumena), with Kant’s belief that reality fundamentally exceeds our understanding; human reason should not be the criterion of the real. The result is the idea that our most vivid encounters with reality come in experiences that shatter our categories, the way God’s commandment to kill Isaac irreconcilably clashes with the best understanding of ethics we are capable of. I explain the genesis of this idea, and then show it at work in Heidegger and Levinas’ thought. Understanding this position illuminates important aspects of the history of continental philosophy and offers a new perspective on realism.

Education as Humanism of the Other

by Aparna Mishra Tarc

Educational philosophy and theory

This paper explores how educators might intervene in canonized texts of the human subject on which a particular and... more This paper explores how educators might intervene in canonized texts of the human subject on which a particular and exclusive kind of humanism rests. In imagining possible interventions educators might make, I turn to and trace Jacques Derrida's on-going deconstruction of the philosophical texts of subjectivity. In his body of work, Derrida destabilizes fixed notions of the human subject and the institutions it founds (like philosophy and education). From Derrida's points of destabilization and through a differing but similar deconstructive stance, I also consider Gayatri Spivak's suggestive question ‘Who is not the subject of humanism?’ to provide another possible trajectory for intervention that educators might take. Departing from knowledge-based conceptions of human subjectivity, Spivak urges educators to respond to their students in meaningful encounter with the ‘Other’ while Derrida suggests human beings might begin the difficult and complex task of re-envisioning an altered humanism, a humanism founded on the call of the Other in institutional sites like education. By an engaged rereading of the texts of human subjectivity upon which human beings are written and by turning to respond to the face of the human beings in and outside their classrooms as a means of encountering the Other's humanity, I suggest that educators be the catalyst for changing what it means to be human and education the means by which we approach a humanism yet to be.

Introduction to Levinas, Race, and Racism

by John E. Drabinski

Introduction to the forthcoming (2012) volume of Levinas Studies, special issue on "Levinas, Race, and Racism," ed. John E. Drabinski

This is the introduction to the forthcoming (2012) volume of Levinas Studies: An Annual. The volume, which I edited,... more This is the introduction to the forthcoming (2012) volume of Levinas Studies: An Annual. The volume, which I edited, is on the theme of "Levinas, Race, and Racism." My introduction raises the broad and urgent questions that motivate the collection, as well as providing an overview of each of the essays. Contributors: Lisa Guenther, Simone Drichel, Oona Eisenstadt, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Mary Gallagher, Anjali Prabhu, Kris Sealey, John E. Drabinski, and Grant Farred. Issues range from historical experience, postcolonial theory, aesthetics, and the idea of Europe. Figures discussed, in addition to Levinas, include Patterson, Spivak, Dussel, Glissant, Fanon, Sartre, Gilroy, D'Oliveira, and others.

Levinas as Traveling Theory

by John E. Drabinski

A rough draft of a paper on Levinas and Levinasian thinking across time-place-political borders. In some ways, a... more A rough draft of a paper on Levinas and Levinasian thinking across time-place-political borders. In some ways, a meta-theorization of my Levinas and the Postcolonial book. I take Said's notion of traveling theory up in order to think about moving Levinas' work into conversation (and confrontation) with non-European theorists. I argue that the central transformation of Levinas' thought is the infusion of his notions of subjectivity and language with a robust notion of historical experience - something that has massive, wide-ranging effects on his work. Key to this transformation, as well, is thinking through the problem of monolingualism in Levinas, which is one of a handful of colonial hangovers in his work. I conclude with a more general reflection on what it means to decolonize European theory, with Levinas as a leading example.

‘Can civil society succeed where elites have failed on the war against sectarianism in Northern Ireland? Towards an infinitely demanding politics for the North’

by Peter Doran

Published in Leonard, L. and Allen, K. (Eds.), Irish Journal of
Sociology, Vol.18, No.2, pp.155-182.

Caught between the well armed imaginations of paramilitary organisations competing for the hearts and minds of a... more Caught between the well armed imaginations of paramilitary organisations competing for the hearts and minds of a divided population, and State engineering of a liberal peace, civil society‟s impact on Northern Ireland‟s identity politics was limited during the thirty-year conflict. Specifically, the community and voluntary sector itself has tended to reproduce as much as it challenged patterns of segregation in many of its own structures. With plans set out in the Northern Ireland Executive‟s Programme for Government (2008-2011) to engage civil society in opening a new era of „good relations‟ work to counter sectarianism and racism, civil society organisations will face a complex terrain, facing scepticism about their contribution to peace making before the Good Friday Agreement, and working in a post-Agreement environment marked by elite and communal antagonism. In this article, I want to suggest that civil society has a new role to play in encouraging communities to confront the contradictions and tensions that continue to haunt the political architects of the Good Friday Agreement by affirming the dominant identities while embracing a radical vision of democracy as democratisation. I will draw on the work of Simon Critchley, Emmanuel Lévinas and Wendy Brown, to offer an approach to identity politics in post-conflict Northern Ireland, focusing on the future orientation of civil society.

The Speed of Experience: The Co-narrative Method in Experience Economy Education

by Monika Kostera

Co-authored with Jerzy Kociatkiewicz
Forthcoming in British Journal of Management (Early View available online)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00777.x

This paper proposes a management learning technique called the co-narrative method. This approach is seen as a useful... more This paper proposes a management learning technique called the co-narrative method. This approach is seen as a useful means of capturing the subtler nuances of experience economy interactions, as well as learning ethics and corporate social responsibility, by nurturing empathy and compassion. A method is presented based on the example of the idea of slow as fast side of organizational and festival experiences, which is explored through autoethnographic studies of participation in experience economy events. It builds upon insights into improving management education through the use of the humanistic approach. The so-called co-narrative method is based on a syzygic mode uniting thetwo oppositions (while preserving their inherent contradictions). It encourages its usersto exercise understanding of the experience of the Other, while teaching about concrete cases and events

The Philosopher's Fear of Alterity: Levinas, Europe and Humanities' Without Sacred History'

by andrew mcgettigan

Radical Philosophy 140 (Nov/Dec 2006)

"Those who have sought resources in Levinas for a project of... more Radical Philosophy 140 (Nov/Dec 2006)

"Those who have sought resources in Levinas for a project of anti-racism have been confounded by some of his comments about non-Western cultures: 'the exotic'. In addition, many of his advocates have been confused by the metaphysical apparatus assembled in support of the valorisation of the face (le visage): these features tend to be understood biographically or as functionlss remnants of religious belief and presonal prejudices."

This article attempts to demonstrate that the two problems - metaphysical apparatus and unpalatable comments - are fundamentally connected through Levinas's conception of transcendence.

Beyond categories, proper names, types and norms toward a fragile openness (Offen-barkeit) of différance, but always from within the text

by Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

Published in HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 68(1)

Vernacular Solidarity: On Gilroy's Appropriation of Levinas

by John E. Drabinski

Draft: an essay on Gilroy's reading of Levinas, which I claim transforms our sense of the political significance of... more Draft: an essay on Gilroy's reading of Levinas, which I claim transforms our sense of the political significance of the vulnerable body, while at the same time developing the ethical dimension of Gilroy's work on solidarity. The key claim of the essay is that Gilroy's notion of solidarity - negotiated via purposive exile and vagrancy - has a vernacular dimension that makes an ethical politics possible. Or at least imaginable. And that such a politics allows us to think about race and otherness without raciology and colonial epistemologies of racial identity.

Thinking Otherwise: Ethics, Technology and Other Subjects

by David Gunkel

Ethics and Information Technology 9(3), July 2007, pp. 165-177

Ethics is ordinarily understood as being concerned with questions of responsibility for and in the face of an other.... more Ethics is ordinarily understood as being concerned with questions of responsibility for and in the face of an other. This other is more often than not conceived of as another human being and, as such, necessarily excludes others – most notably animals and machines. This essay examines the ethics of such exclusivity. It is divided into three parts. The first part investigates the exclusive anthropocentrism of traditional forms of moral thinking and, following the example of recent innovations in animal rights philosophy, questions the mechanisms of such exclusion. Although recent work in animal- and bio-ethics has successfully implemented strategies for the inclusion of the animal as a legitimate subject of moral consideration, its other, the machine, has remained conspicuously excluded. The second part looks at recent attempts to include these machinic others in moral thinking and critiques the assumptions, values, and strategies that have been employed by these various innovations. And the third part proposes a means for thinking otherwise. That is, it introduces an alternative way to consider these other forms of otherness that is not simply reducible to the conceptual order that has structured and limited moral philosophy’s own concern with and for others.

Levinas and the Political (Review)

by Eric S. Nelson

Review of Howard Caygill, Levinas and the Political (Routledge, 2002). Teaching Philosophy, Vol. 28:2, June 2005: 188-191.

Extending Spinoza... for the love of God! Spinoza,

by f. scott scribner

Published: International Philosophical Quaterly Vo. 42, No 2, Issue 166 (June 2002), 151-160.

Highlights briefly Levinas to consider possible alternative articulations of an "extensional' embodied love of... more Highlights briefly Levinas to consider possible alternative articulations of an "extensional' embodied love of God in Spinoza.

Levinas Face to Face with Fichte

by f. scott scribner

Published:

Southwest Philosophy Review. pgs 151-160, Vol 16, Number 1, Jan., 2000

Against Levinas' own dismissal of Fichte, this paper considers Fichte's very own meditation on the face as an... more Against Levinas' own dismissal of Fichte, this paper considers Fichte's very own meditation on the face as an important precursor to Levinas.

Emmanuel Levinas and the Prophetic Voice of Postmodernity

by Anthony Beavers

‘The Complexity of the Instant: Bachelard, Levinas, Lucretius’ in Time and the Instant: Essays in the Physics and the Philosophy of Time, ed. R Durie (Clinamen Press, Manchester, 2000), 190-216.

by David Webb

Explicaciones Ontológicas e Implicaciones Éticas de la Soledad

by Marlon Orozco Baños

Esta Tesis es un tratado ontológico orienteado hacia las ineludibles y trascendentales conseuencias éticas de la... more Esta Tesis es un tratado ontológico orienteado hacia las ineludibles y trascendentales conseuencias éticas de la entidad de lo humano.

Es la soledad ontológica (el ser sólo uno, sólo lo que soy y no otra cosa) la caracteríastica manifiesta fundamental sobre la que se despliega el en concebir el mundo y en el concebir lo otro/el otro/el humano. Son bastos los temas que se tratan en esta tesis; lo más recomendable es, desde luego, leerla.

Sobre la alteridad en Levinas: Una aproximación a Totalidad e Infinito

by Marlon Orozco Baños

En este ensayo se trata del concepto levinasiano de alteridad como es manejado en la primera parte de Totalidad e... more En este ensayo se trata del concepto levinasiano de alteridad como es manejado en la primera parte de Totalidad e infinito.