Face 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, State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246 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.