The intrigue of ethics: a reading of the idea of discourse in the thought of Emmanuel Lévinas

This work explains how human beings can live more peacefully with one another by understanding the conditions of possibility for dialogue. Philosophically, this challenge is articulated as the problem of: how dialogue as dia-logos is possible when the shared logos is precisely that which is in question. Emmanuel Levinas, in demonstrating that the shared logos is a function of interhuman relationship, helps us to make some progress in understanding the possibilities for dialogue in this situation. If the terms of the argument to this point are taken largely from Levinas's 1961 Totality and Infinity, Dudiak further proposes that Levinas's 1974 Otherwise than Being can be read as a deepening of these earlier analyses, delineating, both the conditions of possibility and impossibility for discourse itself. Throughout these analyses Dudiak discovers that in Levinas's view dialogue is ultimately possible, only for a gracious subjectivity already graced by God by way of the other, but where the word God is inseparable from my subjectivity as graciousness to the other. Finally, for Levinas, the facilitation of dialogue, the facilitation of peace, comes down to the subject's capacity and willingness to be who he or she is, to take the beautiful risk of a peaceful gesture offered to the other, and that peace, in this gesture itself. As Levinas himself puts it: Peace then is under my responsibility. I am a hostage, for I am alone to wage it, running a fine risk, dangerously. Levinas's philosophical discourse is precisely itself to be read as such a gesture. This book explains how human beings can live more peacefully with one another by understanding the conditions of possibility for dialogue. Philosophically, this challenge is articulated as the problem of: how dialogue as dia-logos is possible when the shared logos is precisely that which is in question. Emmanuel Levinas, in demonstrating that the shared logos is a function of interhuman relationship, helps us to make some progress in understanding the possibilities for dialogue in this situation. If the terms of the argument to this point are taken largely from Levinas's 1961 Totality and Infinity , this book further proposes that Levinas's 1974 Otherwise than Being can be read as a deepening of these earlier analyses, delineating, both the conditions of possibility and impossibility for discourse itself. Throughout these analyses this book discovers that in Levinas's view dialogue is ultimately possible, only for a gracious subjectivity already graced by God by way of the other, but where the word God is inseparable from subjectivity as graciousness to the other. Finally, for Levinas, the facilitation of dialogue, the facilitation of peace, comes down to the subject's capacity and willingness to be who he or she is, to take the beautiful risk of a peaceful gesture offered to the other, and that peace, in this gesture itself. As Levinas himself puts it: “Peace then is under my responsibility. I am a hostage, for I am alone to wage it, running a fine risk, dangerously.” Levinas's philosophical discourse is precisely itself to be read as such a gesture Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page ix) Preface: Dialogue and Peace (page xi) PART I: THE IDEA OF DISCOURSE 1. The Impasse of Dialogue (page 3) 2. Original Plurality: The Terms of Discourse (page 57) 3. Discourse as the Condition of Possibility for Dialogue (page 109) PART II: THE POSSIBILE IMPOSSIBILITY Introduction to Part II (page 167) 4. The Two Aspects of Language: The Saying and the Said (page 178) 5. The Two Directions in Language: The Reductive and the Re-constructive (page 224) 6. The Moment of Responsibility: Time and Eternity (page 263) PART III: DISCOURSE, PHILOSOPHY, AND PEACE 7. Levinas's Philosophical Discourse (page 317) 8. The Im / possibility of Peace (page 403) Bibliography (page 421) Index (page 433) "The Intrigue of Ethics' explains how human beings can live more peacefully with one another by understanding the conditions of possibility for dialogue. The arguments to this point are taken largely from Emmanuel Levinas's 'Totality and Infinity' and his 'Otherwise than Being." "Fine-grained studies focused on specific passages of Levinas's texts move gradually to a persuasive interpretation of his two masterpieces." -John Llewelyn, University of Edinburgh