doi: 10.2989/ipjp.2010.10.2.4.1085

 

Heidegger and Levinas: Metaphysics, ontology and the horizon of the Other

 

 

Irina Poleshchuk

 

 

---

ABSTRACT

Already in his earlier works Levinas proposes a distinct phenomenological project which takes into consideration the radicality of the other and otherness by questioning intentionality and the validity of intersubjectivity within intentional consciousness. His move "towards Heidegger and against Husserl" was due primarily to Heidegger's Dasein analysis, understanding of Being and being-with. However, in his major work, Totality and Infinity, Levinas proposes a new perspective on reading intersubjective relations with the Other which strongly contrasts with the Heideggerian concept of intersubjectivity. This paper addresses the question of the Other, intersubjectivity and ethics in the writings of Levinas and Heidegger respectively. It considers Levinas's critique of intersubjectivity as provoked and developed by Heidegger's analytic of Dasein, and concentrates on Levinas's specific understanding of intentionality in his account of metaphysics, metaphysical desire and the Other. It also takes up the question of temporality as a necessary condition for intersubjective relation and explores its implication for the self and the Other in Levinas's and Heidegger's respective philosophies.

---

 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

References

Blanchot, M. (1980). L'écriture du désastre [The writing of the disaster].         [ Links ] Paris, France: Gallimard.

Blanchot, M. (1986). The writing of the disaster (A. Smock, Trans.). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. (Original work published 1980)        [ Links ]

Critchley, S. (1999). The ethics of deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas (2nd ed.). West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.         [ Links ]

Derrida, J. (1981). Violence and metaphysics: An essay on the thought of Emmanuel Levinas (A. Bass, Trans.). In Writing and difference (pp. 117-228). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1967)        [ Links ]

Derrida, J., & Labarrière, P-J. (1986). Alterités [Othernesses].         [ Links ] Paris, France: Osiris.

Drabinski, J. E. (2001). Sensibility and singularity: The problem of phenomenology in Levinas. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.         [ Links ]

Heidegger, M. (1992). History of the concept of time: Prolegomena (T. Kisiel, Trans.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (Original lectures delivered 1925)        [ Links ]

Heidegger, M. (1993). Letter on humanism (F. A. Capuzzi, Trans.). In D. F. Krell (Ed.), Martin Heidegger: Basic writings (pp. 213-265). San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins. (Original work published 1947)        [ Links ]

Heidegger, M. (1995). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. (Original work published 1927).         [ Links ]

Levinas, E. (1981). Otherwise than being or beyond essence (A. Lingis, Trans.). The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff. (Original work published 1974)        [ Links ]

Levinas, E. (1985). Ethics and infinity: Conversations with Philippe Nemo (R. A. Cohen, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. (Original interview series by Philippe Nemo, Radio-France Culture, February and March, 1981)        [ Links ]

Levinas, E. (1985a). Time and the other (R. A. Cohen, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. (Original work published 1979)        [ Links ]

Levinas, E. (1994). Of God who comes to mind (B. Bergo, Trans.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (Original work published 1982)        [ Links ]

Levinas, E. (1998). Discovering existence with Husserl (R. A. Cohen & M. B. Smith, Trans. & Eds.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1949)        [ Links ]

Levinas, E. (1998a). The work of Edmund Husserl. In Discovering existence with Husserl (R. A. Cohen & M. B. Smith, Trans. & Eds.) (pp. 47-90). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1940)        [ Links ]

Levinas, E. (2004). Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. (Original work published 1961)        [ Links ]

Lingis, A. (1989). Deathbound subjectivity. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.         [ Links ]

Nancy, J.-L. (2002). Heidegger's "originary ethics" (D. Large, Trans.). In F. Raffoul & D. Pettigrew (Eds.), Heidegger and practical philosophy (pp. 65-85). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (Original work published 1996)        [ Links ]

Peperzak, A. (1993). To the other: An Introduction to the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.         [ Links ]

Taminiaux, J. (1991). Heidegger and the project of fundamental ontology (M. Gendre, Ed. & Trans.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (Original work published 1989)        [ Links ]

Theunissen, M. (1984). The other: Studies in the social ontology of Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Buber (C. Macann, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 1965)        [ Links ]

Tugendhat, E. (1995). Conscience de soi et autodétermination: Interprétations analytiques [Self-consciousness and self-determination] (R.         [ Links ] Rochlitz, Trans.). Paris, France: Armand Colin. (Original work published in German 1979)