SUNY series in Contemporary French Thought : Before the Voice of Reason : Echoes of Responsibility in Merleau-Ponty's Ecology and Levinas's Ethics

Provides a critique of reason, demanding that we take greater responsibility for nature and other people.Before the Voice of Reason is a phenomenological critique of reason grounded in our experience of the voices that already address us and summon us prior to the emergence of the voice of reason. In part one, David Michael Kleinberg-Levin explores the voices of nature and draws on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology to offer a new way of thinking about environmental responsibility. In part two, he looks at the voice of the moral law and the voices of other human beings, advances a more nuanced account of Levinas’s distinction between “Saying” and “Said,” and proposes a new argument for our responsibility to the other.David Michael Kleinberg-Levin is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He is the author of several books, including Gestures of Ethical Life: Reading Hölderlin’s Question of Measure After Heidegger and The Philosopher’s Gaze: Modernity in the Shadows of Enlightenment. Before the Voice of Reason 5 Acknowledgments 13 Contents 15 Introduction 19 1. A Human Voice 19 2. The Project 32 3. The Ethical Root of the Voice 42 4. The Voice of Reason 43 5. Reconciling Voices: The Political Register 53 6. Conversation 59 7. Reading This Book 64 Part 1. The Singing of the World: The Claim of Nature in Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology 69 1. The Remembrance of Nature in the Voice of the Subject 71 1. Invocations of Nature 71 2. The Song of the Winds 89 3. The Song of the Earth 104 2. The Question of Origins 116 1. Silence 116 2. Song 120 3. The Voice of Ecological Attunement in a Practice of Caring for Oneself 128 1. Prologue 128 2. The Singing of Language 132 3. Caring for Oneself:The Three Phase-Dimensions of the Voice 137 4. Dying Echoes: What Must Be Remembered 152 Part II. Levinas: On the Claim of the Ethical 161 4. The Saying and the Said:Giving Time to the Voice of the Other 165 1. Unavoidable Violence 166 2. Responsibility: Claiming the Voice 170 3. Inspiration 171 4. Heterology, Heteronomy: The Lyrical Voice 175 5. The Ethical Dimensions of the Voice 176 6. Ethical Saying: The Claim in Dialogue 182 5. The Pre-Originary Dimension of Saying 199 1. Preliminary Soundings 199 2. The Voice of Reason 211 3. The Pre-Originary Voice 218 4. Palimpsest: The Trace of the Other in the Text of Our Flesh,or, The Echo of the Other in the Trembling of the Flesh 223 5. Enigmatic Echoes: Retrieving the Trace 241 Epilogue 259 My Voices 263 Notes 265 Index 305 A 305 B 305 C 305 D 305 E 305 F 305 G 306 H 306 J 306 K 306 L 306 M 306 N 306 O 306 P 307 R 307 S 307 T 307 V 307 W 307 Z 307 Content: A human voice -- The project -- The ethical root of the voice -- The voice of reason -- Reconciling voices : the political register -- Conversation -- Reading this book -- The singing of the world : the claim of nature in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology -- The remembrance of nature in the voice of the subject -- Invocations of nature -- The song of the winds -- The song of the earth -- The question of origins -- Silence -- Song -- The voice of ecological attunement in a practice of caring for oneself -- Prologue -- The singing of language -- Caring for oneself : the three phase-dimensions of the voice -- Dying echoes : what must be remembered -- Levinas : on the claim of the ethical -- The saying and the said : giving time to the voice of the other -- Unavoidable violence -- Responsibility : claiming the voice -- Inspiration -- Heterology, heteronomy : the lyrical voice -- The ethical dimensions of the voice -- Ethical saying : the claim in dialogue -- The pre-originary dimension of saying -- Preliminary soundings -- The voice of reason -- The pre-originary voice -- Palimpsest : the trace of the other in the text of our flesh, or, the echo of the other in the trembling of the flesh -- Enigmatic echoes : retrieving the trace.