Getting under the skin: platonic myths in Levinas

ENLevinas' philosophy has been strongly influenced by Plato; he acknowledges Plato particularly for realizing that the Good is beyond Being, or in other words, that the Good transcends any given totality. Both Plato and Levinas are philosophers of verticality. In Plato, we ascend from the cave to the sunlight, and from the lower to the upper part of the divided line. Each of the two Platonic allegories is designed to illuminate the progression from the perception of various appearances to an insight into the Forms. In Levinas, the Other is essentially unforeseeable and comes to me from the ethical height with which he or she confronts me. Doing justice means recognizing and acknowledging this asymmetry between the Other and me.