Notes toward a metaphysics of otherness: reflections on Levinas and the humanities

ENThe direction in which Levinas’ thought moves begins with a description of the conditions for philosophic inquiry that are dependent upon an inescapable relation with the other. To reason, for Levinas, becomes the justification of oneself in the presence of the other. For Levinas, this means that ethics is prior to ontology. This means that the philosopher’s thought and conduct ultimately cannot be separated. A new conception of philosophy must be established. The philosopher is responsible not only for what he does, says, and thinks but is ultimately also responsible for and answerable to-the-other. How is such a position possible and how is this advanced by Levinas? How, for example, is it possible to live in the absence of justice without succumbing to a belief in its nonexistence? For what we are calling Levinas’ “Metaphysics of Otherness” offers in the spirit of phenomenology a new beginning for the philosophic quest. His training in phenomenology with Husserl and Heidegger, his mastery of the Western Philosophic tradition, and the breadth of his understanding of the humanities as well as his Biblical-Talmudic training marked him as uniquely suited for the difficult task at hand - to rediscover the irreducible essence of the humanities, the human subject. In this essay, we shall briefly try to sketch out Levinas’ philosophical itinerary as it is lived in the anticipation and aftermath of the events between 1933 and 1945. In this way, we hope to show how Levinas’ thought helps to generate a climate sufficiently humane to value the importance of the study and teaching of the humanities, that is to say, of Western spirituality.