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Levinas

The document discusses Emmanuel Levinas' philosophy on ethics and responsibility towards others, emphasizing the importance of humanizing education to prevent the creation of 'learned monsters.' It highlights the concept of the 'face' as a direct call to responsibility, illustrating the vulnerability and non-reciprocal relationship we have with others. Levinas argues that our responsibility extends beyond immediate relationships to encompass societal justice and the well-being of all individuals.

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12 views11 pages

Levinas

The document discusses Emmanuel Levinas' philosophy on ethics and responsibility towards others, emphasizing the importance of humanizing education to prevent the creation of 'learned monsters.' It highlights the concept of the 'face' as a direct call to responsibility, illustrating the vulnerability and non-reciprocal relationship we have with others. Levinas argues that our responsibility extends beyond immediate relationships to encompass societal justice and the well-being of all individuals.

Uploaded by

adrodriguez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Levinas’ The Face and

Responsibility for the Other

Gladys Esteve
Ateneo de Naga University
Abel and Cain (Gen 4:1-16)
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where
is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied.


“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Emmanuel Levinas
A French philosopher of Lithuanian
Jewish ancestry. He wrote on topics of
phenomenology, ethics, ontology,
existentialism and the Talmud.

He went to Freiburg to study Husserl


but he found Heidegger.

He was a prisoner of war during WWII.


Dear Teacher,
I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:
Gas chambers built by learned engineers.
Children poisoned by educated physicians.
Infants killed by trained nurses.
Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college
graduates.
So, I am suspicious of education.
My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce
learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children
more humane.

Haim Ginott
Beyond Heidegger
Being Dasein Mit-Dasein (they)

On Escape and Otherwise than Being


Existence existents
● Il y a (there is)
● Jouissance (naive innocent
enjoyment)
● Riveted to Being
● Radical Alterity of the Other
The Face
Totality and Infinity
The Law of the I is Totalization and Domination

Knowledge is to grasp.

The Law of the Other is Experience and Surprise

Sur-prise (escapes our grasp)

Descartes idea of the Infinite (container-contained schema)


Metonymy of the Face
Faces confront directly and immediately. They refuse typologies.
Levinas account also illustrates another aspect of human
beings: vulnerability.

The face is naked, exposed, and open to attack. It is hungry and


thirsty. And it seeks protection and nourishment.

My identity is “me here for you”.


Nexus
The face is a nexus of plea-command-and call to responsibility.

It show us the non-reciprocal and non-symmetrical relationship we


have with the other.

Radical passivity. Even before we respond we are already claimed.

The self is both host and hostage.


Responsibility for the Other
Our responsibility for the other is embodied. It is both earthly and
economic.

There dis-interes-tedness, the tearing away from the self, a


self-emptying (kenosis) when we go to the other.

Third party. My responsibility therefore is not just to the proximate


other, those within my immediate circle but also to the other others, the
society, thus responsibility comes with justice.
“Believe in the good because the good always creates a space for
itself.”

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