The Face of Things: A Different Side of Ethics (S U N Y Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy)

__Engages Levinas and Heidegger on the provocative issue of an ethics of things.__ Engages Levinas and Heidegger on the provocative issue of an ethics of things.Here's a book that dispels the traditional tendency of philosophy to ignore the alterity of things. Drawing on two major figures in the continental tradition—Levinas and Heidegger—author Silvia Benso engages them on the provocative issue of an ethics of things. She argues that Levinas advances an ethics without things, and Heidegger proffers a conception of things without ethics. Taking up their respective meditations on ethics and things precisely at the point where they abandon such themes, and exposing them to each other, Benso innovatively elaborates an ethical attitude toward things capable of celebrating their alterity—a demand rendered urgent and compelling by the contemporary environmental crisis. Creatively centered on a philosophical hermeneutics of tenderness, The Face of Things advances the everyday time of festivity as the novel dimension within which the alterity of things can be recognized, preserved, and celebrated.Silvia Benso is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Siena College. She is the author of Pensare dopo Auschwitz. Etica filosofica e teodicea ebraica. Here's a book that dispels the traditional tendency of philosophy to ignore the alterity of things. Drawing on two major figures in the continental tradition -- Levinas and Heidegger -- author Silvia Benso engages them on the provocative issue of an ethics of things. She argues that Levinas advances an ethics without things, and Heidegger proffers a conception of things without ethics. Taking up their respective meditations on ethics and things precisely at the point where they abandon such themes, and exposing them to each other, Benso innovatively elaborates an ethical attitude toward things capable of celebrating their alterity -- a demand rendered urgent and compelling by the contemporary environmental crisis. Creatively centered on a philosophical hermeneutics of tenderness, The Face of Things advances the everyday time of festivity as the novel dimension within which the alterity of things can be recognized, preserved, and celebrated. "Drawing on two major figures in the continental tradition - Levinas and Heidegger - author Silvia Benso engages them on the provocative issue of an ethics of things. She argues that Levinas advances an ethics without things, and Heidegger proffers a conception of things without ethics. Taking up their respective meditations on ethics and things precisely at the point where they abandon such themes, and exposing them to each other, Benso innovatively elaborates an ethical attitude toward things capable of celebrating their alterity - a demand rendered urgent and compelling by the contemporary environmental crisis. Creatively centered on a philosophical hermeneutics of tenderness, The Face of Things advances the everyday time of festivity as the novel dimension within which the alterity of things can be recognized, preserved, and celebrated."--BOOK JACKET. Levinas: Love Without Things -- Out Of Love: The Break With Parmenides -- In Love: Ethics As The Meeting Place -- My Love, Who Are You? The Face Of The Beloved Other -- Without Love: The Disappearance Of Things -- Heidegger: Things Without Love -- The Question Of Things -- Phenomenologically, Things -- Instrumental Modes Of Disclosure -- Artistic Modes Of Disclosure -- Ethical Disclosure? The Faciality Of Things -- The Ethics Of Things: Tender Love, Festive Things -- Prelude: Toward An Ethics Of Things -- Things' Obsessive Appeal -- Touch, Attention, Tenderness -- Saddened Tenderness: Violence And Resistance -- Festive Celebrations. Silvia Benso. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 231-252) And Index. Silvia Benso is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Siena College. She is the author of Pensare dopo Auschwitz. Etica filosofica e teodicea ebraica .