Emmanuel Levinas on dual violence, the Other, and war
Abstract
The article examines the topic of violence and war in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995). The main focus is revealing his philosophy’s theoretical foundations and personal motives. In particular, it is about the phenomenological background of Levinasian philosophizing and his personal experience of violence and war. At the same time, attention is focused on the fact that without considering these moments, the understanding of Levinasian philosophy will not look complete and may even entirely fall apart into unrelated or inconsistent plots. Without them, we will have Levinas as a phenomenologist with inconsistent and non-phenomenological ethics, or vice versa – as an ethicist with religious ethics detached from the real world and the state of affairs in it. The article argues the position according to which the theme of violence and war is the one that connects Levinasian ethics and phenomenology. Particular attention is paid to the dual nature of violence: the violence of the Self over the Other and the violence of the Other itself over the Self. In this way, the emphasis is on the fact that the second violence is non-original and can be overcome, whereas the first violence is original, ineradicable and traumatic, that is, it cannot be overcome. Levinas understands war as the ultimate form of any violence in general and the fundamental principle of being that suspends morality.
References
Bauman, Z. (2000), Modernity and the Holocaust, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 267 p.
Cohen, R. A. (2010), Levinasian Meditations: Ethics, Philosophy, and Religion, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, 397 p.
Critchley, S. (1992), The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 293 p.
Critchley, S. (2015), The Problem with Levinas, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 170 p.
Derrida, J. (1964), “Violence et métaphysique: Essai sur la pensée d’Emmanuel Levinas”, Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, № 3, pp. 322-354.
Levinas, E. (1961), Totalité et Infini: Essais sur l’Extériorité, Martinus Nijhoff, La Haye, 348 p.
Levinas, E. (1978), Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence, Martinus Nijhoff, La Haye, 283 p.
Levinas, E. (1987), Collected Philosophical Papers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, 186 p.
Levinas, E. (1988), Autrement que savoir, Osiris, Paris, 95 p.
Levinas, E. (1988a), “The Paradox of Morality: An Interview with Emmanuel Levinas”, The Provocation of Levinas: Rethinking the Other [R. Bernasconi, D. Wood, ed.], Routledge, London, pp. 168-180
Levinas, E. (1999), Between Us: A Study of Thinking-About-the-Other [Mizh namy: Doslidzhennya dumky-pro-Inshoho], Spirit and Letter: Zadruga, Kyiv, 312 с. [in Ukrainian]
Lévinas, E. (2001), En découvrant l'existence avec Husserl et Heidegger, Vrin, Paris, 336 p.
Malakhov, V. (1997), "Emmanuel Levinas: A View from Kyiv" ["Emanuel Levinas: pohlyad iz Kyyeva"], Spirit and Letter, No. 1, pp. 292-308 [in Ukrainian]
Merleau-Ponty, М. (1945), Phénoménologie de la perception, Gallimard, Paris, 531 p.
Peperzak, A.T. (1993), To the Other: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, 247 p.
Sartre, J.-P. (1943), L'être et Le Néant: essai d'ontologie phénoménologique, Gallimard, Paris, 848 p.
Waldenfels, B. (2002), Introduction to Phenomenology [Vstup do fenomenolohiyi], Alterpress, Kyiv, 176 p. [in Ukrainian]
Waldenfels, B. (2004), Topography of the Alien: Studies in the Phenomenology of the Alien [Topohrafiya Chuzhoho: studiyi do fenomenolohiyi Chuzhoho], PPS-2002, Kyiv, 206 с. [in Ukrainian]
Žižek, S. (2006), “Neighbors and Other Monsters: A Plea for Ethical Violence”, Neighbor: Three Inquiries in Political Theology, University of Press, Chicago, pp. 134-190
