Spacing ethics: Levinas with the ethical tradition

Alon Kantor, Purdue University

Abstract

This work explores the relationship between the ethical aspect of the philosophy of Emannuel Levinas and the Western tradition of political ethics, through an examination of three major themes--Time, Desire and Law--that traditionally have been the stepping stones for the development of discourses on political ethics. We read "his" texts "with" other texts which function as spaces of alterity that disturb and solicit the "original" and expose "other" meanings. Insofar as ethics is defined by the idea that the human being is always already a 'being-with,' and insofar as the Other is privileged by the ethical discourse that is developed by Levinas, then our 'With' insertions firstly, assume the position of Otherness and, secondly, establish a priority through which Levinas' discourse achieves a polysemy of "essence(s)." We show how the notions of Time, Desire and Law are closely interconnected by the central theme of an ethical discourse, and how Levinas marks/demarks the concept of political ethics, as it is traditionally developed by Western philosophy. By following these three major shibboleths we trace the deconstructive effort of Levinas to dismantle Western philosophy's traditional conceptualization of ethics. Our discussion points not to the failure of Levinas' toil but rather to the aporetic structure of his itinerary and to the ethical significance of this aporia.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Weinstein, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Political science|Philosophy|Theology|Law

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