Levinas and Political Theory

Alford, C. Fred

doi:10.1177/0090591703254977

Cited by 47 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As we see in detail below, the ethical relation as sensible proximity to the other human being reveals the possibility of absolute alterity: an unmediated relation to otherness. It is this phenomenologically inspired meaning of the ethical and political-as modes of relation and intelligibility-which in my view leads to what Alford (2004) calls the "Levinas Effect": the fact that Levinas's thought seems amenable to just about any political reading (pp. 146-47).…”

Section: Ethical and Political Intelligibilitymentioning

confidence: 90%

Levinas’s Political Chiasmi: Otherwise than Being as a Response to Liberalism and Fascism, Humanism and Antihumanism

Eeden

2019

Religions

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In this article, I approach the relationship between the ethical and political in Levinas from the perspective of the hermeneutic strategy he employs when engaging with political thought. I argue that, in two key texts—“Reflections on the Philosophy of Hitlerism” and Humanism of the Other—Levinas situates seemingly opposed traditions of political thought in chiastic relation to one another: liberalism and fascism, and humanism and antihumanism, respectively. Furthermore, I argue that Levinas’s views on the relationship between the ethical and political in Otherwise than Being can be read as a response to the chiasmi found in the above texts. The relationship between the ontologies of liberalism and fascism is chiastic, because the latter’s fatal embrace of embodied and historical existence relies on the dualism the former establishes between the subject as transcendent and the body as immanent. Humanism and antihumanism are in chiastic relation in terms of the question of violence. The latter critiques the former for the violence of its Platonist devaluation of historical cultures, and argues instead for the equivalence of cultures; however, in locating intelligibility in structures of which specific cultures are merely configurations, antihumanism repeats the devaluation of specific cultures. In an altered manner, it is, therefore, also a potentially violent view of intercultural relations. Levinas’s analysis of sensible proximity to the human other is an attempt to account for the gravity of culturally situated meaning without turning it into an irrevocable fatality. I argue that the ethical does not detract from the situatedness of intelligibility, but demonstrates that we are bound to our cultural situation, not by fate, but by responsibility.

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Section: Ethical and Political Intelligibilitymentioning

confidence: 90%

Levinas’s Political Chiasmi: Otherwise than Being as a Response to Liberalism and Fascism, Humanism and Antihumanism

Eeden

2019

Religions

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“…Does this mean, as Alford (2004;153) asks, "that ethics is better than freedom?" No, what this means is that my autonomy is validated in responding to the other (ibid.).…”

Section: Totality and Infinity To Otherwise Than Being)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To recall the citation in the introduction, Levinas (1998;104) acknowledges that we "don't live in a world in which there is but one single 'first comer'; there is always a third party in the world: he or she is also my other, my fellow." The import of this is that, in the words of Alford (2004;156), "the introduction of the third, saves us from being consumed by the infinite need of the other." This is because I am too an other; I am other to another other.…”

Section: The Third Party and Ethico-politico Compromisementioning

confidence: 99%

Enacting Levinas’s Infinite Responsibility as an Ethico-Political Compromise

Andrade

2023

EP&S

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Levinas’s work does not offer us an ethical theory but seeks rather todescribe a pre-originary ethical encounter with the other. Within this face-to-faceencounter with the other, my subjectivity is held hostage because of an originaryasymmetry between us. This ethical asymmetry produces an infinite responsibilityto and for the other, in order that the singularity of the other be preserved. In orderto moderate such a demanding position Levinas introduces the third party whorestores justice by permitting ethical calculation. This marks a move from ethics topolitics. Nonetheless, there remains a lacuna between ethics and politics. I arguefor a reading of Levinas’s claim that the third party is an incessant correction ofthe asymmetry of proximity in order to posit infinite responsibility as thecompromise of ethics with politics. I discuss some implications for business ethics,in particular CSR, in light of these findings.

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“…This "I" who is put in his/her place is a prisoner within his/her own immanence. It is only when the "I" is open to the other and answers to the need of the other, that he/she could be a self again and free from this imprisonment (Alford 2004). This so-called investiture of freedom gives freedom its true meaning:…”

Section: A Tentative Exploration Of the Alternative Political Signifimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This will also shed light on the political importance of Levinas's philosophy from the perspective of the vulnerability discourse. There is a consensus among Levinas scholars that his philosophy has political importance (Morgan 2016;Cohen 2010;Caygill 2002;Alford 2004). The current exploration will demonstrate how this importance can open up the possibility of direct engagement with other contemporary important political debates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Levinasian Reconstruction of the Political Significance of Vulnerability

Mao

2018

Religions

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The concept of vulnerability has been renewed in meaning and importance over recent decades. Scholars such as Judith Butler, Martha Fineman and Pamela Sue Anderson have endeavored to redeem vulnerability from its traditional signification as a negative individual condition, and to reveal the positive meaning of vulnerability as a transformative call for solidarity, equality and love. In this paper we examine the newly constructed positive understanding of vulnerability, and argue that the current way of pursuing this positive understanding affirms a merely functional positivity. In the recent accounts, vulnerability is still a status to avoid, yet functions positively as a corrective force to the environment that produces vulnerability. We will try to find an essential way of designating the positivity of vulnerability by revisiting the philosophical discussion on vulnerability in Emmanuel Levinas. We will argue that Levinas’s notion of vulnerability is positive in a sense which goes beyond the purely functional; it is seen as essential for his definition of humanity. Yet compared to the contemporary discussion, Levinas’s notion of vulnerability lacks a direct social political meaning. We will tentatively explore how the essential positivity drawn from Levinas can provide a new way to construct the political significance of vulnerability.

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Levinas and Political Theory

Cited by 47 publications

References 37 publications

Levinas’s Political Chiasmi: Otherwise than Being as a Response to Liberalism and Fascism, Humanism and Antihumanism

Levinas’s Political Chiasmi: Otherwise than Being as a Response to Liberalism and Fascism, Humanism and Antihumanism

Enacting Levinas’s Infinite Responsibility as an Ethico-Political Compromise

A Levinasian Reconstruction of the Political Significance of Vulnerability

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