Table Of ContentFace to Face with Levinas
SUNY Series in Philosophy
Robert C. Neville, Editor
Face to Face
with Levinas
Edited by Richard A. Cohen
State University of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 1986 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
For information, address State University (If New York Press,
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Face to face with Levinas.
(SUNY series in philosophy)
1. Levina., Emmanuel-Addresses, essays, lectures.
2. Philosophy-Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Cohen,
Richard A., 1950- II. Series.
B2430.L484F33 1986 194 85-17361
ISBN 0-88706-258-X
ISBN 0-88706-259-8 (pbk.)
m 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Contents
Preface Vll
Acknowledgments IX
Key to Abbreviations XI
Introduction
I. PROXIMITY
1. Dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas 13
Emmanuel Levinas and Richard Kearney
2. Bad Conscience and the Inexorable 35
Emmanuel Levinas
3. Our Clandestine Companion 41
Maurice Blanchot
II. FROM ETHICS TO PHILOSOPHY
4. Reason as One for Another: 53
Moral and Theoretical Argument
Steven G. Smith
5. LeviTlas' Question 73
Charles William Reed
6. An Ethical Transcendental Philosophy 83
Theodore de Boer
VI CONTENTS
7. Levinas' Logic 117
Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard
8. Skrpticism and Reason 159
Jan de Greef
9. Levinas and Derrida: 181
The Question of the Closure of Metaphysics
Robert Bernasconi
III. CONTEXTS
10. Some Remarks on Hegel, Kant, and Levinas 205
Adriaan Peperzak
11. The Sensuality and the Smsitivity 219
Alphonso Lingis
12. The Fecundity of the Caress 231
Luce Irigaray
Emmanuel Levinas: Selected Hibliography 257
Contributors 259
Index 263
Preface
Levinas has written his own brief intellectual bibliography, "Signa
ture."! His biography, complete up to 1981, can be found in Emmanuel
Levinas by Roger Burggraeve.:/
The present collection, however, does not require any previous
knowledge of Levinas. Indeed, the interview with Levinas included
in it, conducted by Richard Kearney, is an excellent summary review
of his philosophy. The authors who have contributed to this collec
tion know Levinas' work thoroughly; their articles come from many
years' meditation upon it.
Much is at stake in such meditations and in their fruits. Taking
up philosophy's central tradition, Levinas raises anew the question
of the limits and nature of knowledge, the question of the status of
thought itself. What is unique about Levinas' answer is that it binds
thought not in the name of the true, but in the name of the good.
Levinas does not demand that thought be more rigorous or more in
tune with being, but that it be more thoughtful; heedful of the social,
and therefore moral, conditions that govern it. Levinas demands
that thought be humble.
Levinas' response to the end of metaphysics is not Nietzsche's
"pandemonium of free spirits:' but a call to maturation. Reasonable
ness requires greater responsibilities than were dreamed of by ratio.
Levinas insists on these greater responsibilities, within and beyond
reason. The articles in this collection are challenged by this profound
insistence, seduced by its force, yet not ready to succumb without
protest. In this intellectual hesitation, they articulate a critical con
frontation. Bound yet free, they are deep responses.
Putting this collection together has required much generosity
from many people. I am especially grateful to all the contributors
VII
Preface
VIII
who have so generously given of their thought, and also to the
translators who have contributed their time and effort to a trying
task. I would like to thank Carol Bresnock and Diane Brunamonti
of Penn State at Scranton for typing many parts of the manuscript.
I would like to thank Alphonso Lingis and Edith Wyschogrod, who
from the start - and all along -- have encouraged me to do this pro
ject. The entire collection is a gift of gratitude for Levinas' work,
which inspires it throughout.
Richard A. Cohen
Owings Mills, MD
Notes
1. Levinas, "Signature.:' ed. and annotated by Adriaan Peperzak,
trans. M.E. Petrisko, Research in Phenomenology VIII, 1978, 175-189.
2. Roger Burggraeve, Emmal1uel Levinas, The Center for Metaphysics
and Philosophy of God, Institute of Philosophy, Kardinaal Mercierplein 2,
3000, Louvain, Bergium, 1982.
Acknowledgments
"Dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas" is the result of a seri(~s of inter
views conducted, edited, and translated by Richard Kearney
and reviewed by Levinas. It appeared in Richard Kearney,
Dialogues with Contemporary Continental Thinkers (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1984), 49-69.
"Bad Conscience and the Inexorable:' by Emmanuel Levinas, trans
lated by Richard A. Cohen, first appeared under the title "La
mauvaise conscience et l'inexorable" in Exerci.~es de la patience, no.
2 (Winter 1981): 109-113, in an issue devoted to Maurice Blan
chot. It is reprinted with some changes in De Dieu qui vimt rll'idee
by Levinas (Paris: Vrin, 1982) 258-265.
"Our Clandestine Companion;' by Maurice Blanchot, translated by
David B. Allison, appeared under the title "Notre compagne
clandestine" in Textes pour Emmanuel Levinas, ed. F. Laruelle
(Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1980), 79-87.
"Reason as One for Another: Moral and Theoretical Argument;' by
Steven C. Smith, appeared in the Journal of the British Society for
Phenomenolo,l!J', no. 3 (October 1981): 231-244.
"Levin as' Question;' by Charles William Reed, was written for this
collection.
"Levinas' Logic," by Jean-Franl;ois Lyotard, translated by Ian
McLeod, was published in abbreviated form under the title
"Logique de Levinas" in lextes pour Emmanuel Levinas, 127-150.
It will eventually be included in a larger work by Lyotard.
