In the Margins of Deconstruction: Jewish Conceptions of Ethics in Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida

299 Pages·1998·13.646 MB·English

by  Martin C. Srajek (auth.)

IN THE MARGINS OF DECONSTRUCTION
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHENOMENOLOGY
IN COOPERATION WITH
THE CENTER FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH IN PHENOMENOLOGY
Volume 33
Editor:
John J. Drummond, Mount Saint Mary's College
Editorial Board:
Elizabeth A. Behnke
David Carr, Emory University
Stephen Crowell, Rice University
Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University
J. Claude Evans, Washington University
Jose Huertas-Jourda, Wilfrid Laurier University
Joseph J. Kockelmans, The Pennsylvania State University
William R. McKenna, Miami University
Algis Mickunas, Ohio University
J. N. Mohanty, Temple University
Tom Nenon, The University of Memphis
Thomas M. Seebohm, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat, Mainz
Elisabeth Stroker, Philosophisches Seminarium der Universitat Koln
Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University
Scope
The purpose of this series is to foster the development of phenomenological philosophy through
creative research. Contemporary issues in philosophy, other disciplines and in culture generally,
offer opportunities for the application of phenomenological methods that call for creative responses.
Although the work of several generations of thinkers has provided phenomenology with many results
with which to approach these challenges, a truly successful response to them will require building on
this work with new analyses and methodological innovations.
IN THE MARGINS OF
DECONSTRUCTION
JEWISH CONCEPTIONS OF ETHICS IN
EMMANUEL LEVINAS AND JACQUES DERRIDA
by
MARTIN C. SRAJEK
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Illinois, U.S.A.
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-94-010-6188-9 ISBN 978-94-011-5198-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-5198-6
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1998
Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1998
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
For Noah
whose beauty surprises me every day
and
For Leslie
whose love means more than I could say
T ABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xiii
futroduction 1
CHAPTER 1: THETEXT 24
Reading and Revelation
1.1 futroduction: The Text as "Espace Vitale" 24
1.2 Levinas' Concept of Subjectivity 25
1.2.1 The Subject and the Text 33
1.2.2 The Text 39
1.2.3 TextandGod 43
1.3 Midrashic Ethics 45
1.4 Humans as the lnuption in Being 49
CHAPTER2: THEABSOLUfE 51
Cohen. Rosenzweig. Levinas: Infinite Ethics
2.1 God as illfinite 53
2.2 The Modem Jewish Tradition 57
2.2.1 Hermann Cohen 59
2.2.1.1 Relation with God as "Unendliche Aufgabe" 59
2.2.1.2 Negation and Privation: God the Origin of Activity 61
2.2.1.3 Anti -Materialism: The Holy Spirit and the Correlative
Relation 63
2.2.1.4 Correlative Relation and Moral Action 65
2.2.2 Franz Rosenzweig 67
2.2.2.1 Sanctification 67
2.2.2.2 The Dual Understanding of Truth 69
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
2.2.3 Provisional Summary of Cohen and Rosenzweig 71
2.3 Emmanuel Levinas 72
2.3.1 God and Philosophy 72
2.3.1.1 The Infinite as Privation of the Finite 73
2.3.1.2 Desiring the Infinite 75
2.3.1.3 Desiring the Infinite as God 76
2.4 Conclusion 77
2.4.1 Independence 78
2.4.2 Knowing the Other 79
2.4.3 Recognizing God 80
CHAPfER3: AGENCY 84
Judaism as the Matrix Between Levinas and Derrida
3.1 The Language of Constitution 84
3.1.1 Submission and Proximity 85
3.2 The Prophet Ezekiel in the Writings of Levinas 89
3.2.1 The Explicit Use of Ezekiel in Levinas 89
3.2.2 The Implicit Use of Ezekiel in Levinas 90
3.2.2.1 Agency: Resisting God 90
3.2.2.2 Eating the Scroll: The In-Finite 92
3.2.2.3 Ezekiel's Responsibility 93
3.2.3 The Significance of Ezekiel as a Type 94
3.3 The Prophet Ezekiel in the Thought of Cohen 95
3.3.1 Individuality Constituted by the Other 95
3.4 From Fragmentation to the I1Thou 98
3.5 Fragmentation and Completion 99
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER4:Co~ 103
Phenomenology a/the Face
4.1 Towards a Community of the Face 103
4.2 Hussed's European Scientific Community 106
4.3 Levinas' Critique of Traditional Phenomenology 111
4.3.1 The Face: The Empirical in Excess of the Cogito 113
4.3.2 The Face in the Jewish Tradition 117
4.3.3 Levinas as Phenomenologist 123
4.4 Face-to-Face: The Grounding Aspect of Community 123
4.4.1 Hussed's Problems with the Constitution of the Other 123
4.4.2 Schlitz' Symmetrical Face-to-Face Relationship 125
4.4.3 Levinas and Schutz: Some Differences 129
CHAPTERS: TRANsmON 132
CHAPTER6: THETEXT 142
Pure Presence and the Task a/Translation
6.1 The Text and the Meaning of Presence 142
6.2 Hussed's Infinite Task 144
6.2.1 Derrida's Reading of Hussed: The Possibility of Pure
Metaphysics 148
6.2.2 Phenomenology and Language 152
6.2.3 Language and the Idea in the Kantian Sense 155
6.2.4 Meaning as a Leap Away from Itself 157
6.2.5 Unfolding of Space: The Trace of Presence 159
6.3 The Ethics of Babel 162
6.3.1 Hussed and Babel 165
6.3.2 Benjamin and Babel 166
x TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAFfER7: THE ABSOLUTE l71
Apocalypse: Epistemological Exile vis-a-vis Truth
7.1 Apocalypse and Absolute l71
7.1.1 Apocalypse in Translation 176
7.1.2 Apocalypse as Exile 178
7.1.3 Apocalypse as an Epistemological Condition 180
7.1.4 Apocalypse as Exile and Desire 182
7.2 Kant's Distinguished Tone 184
7.3 The Apocalyptic Aspect in Kant's Approach 187
7.4 Apocalypse and P.revenance 189
7.5 The Hermeneutics of Exile in Levinas and Derrida 192
7.6 The Ethical Significance of the Apocalyptic Discourse 194
CHAFfER8: AGENCY 197
Dif.ferentiality and Negativity
8.1 Apocalypse as the Critique of Negativity 197
8.2 Negative Theology in Jewish Thought 198
8.2.1 Negative Attribution in the Thought of Maimonides 198
8.2.2 Existence as Predication 202
8.2.3 Cohen: Negative Theology as Theology of the Origin 203
8.2.4 Rosenzweig: Overcoming Negativity 206
8.3 Derrida and Negative Theology 208
8.4 Negative Theology and Speaking About It 214
8.5 Differance and the Discourse on Truth 218
8.6 Apocalypse and the Ineffable Name of God 223
8.7 Cohen and Derrida: On the Possibility of Theology 228
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER9: CO~ 230
DifjerOJlce as Messianism, Khora, OJId Minimal Community
9.1 Deconstruction as Description and Prescription 230
9.2 Messianism 233
9.2.1 Messianism in Cohen and Benjamin 233
9.2.1.1 Differance as Strategic and Adventurous 236
9.2.1.2 Deconstruction as Negative Theology 237
9.2.1.3 Differance as Apocalypse 238
9.2.2 Messianism vs. Eschatology 239
9.3 Khora 241
9.3.1 Khora as Time and Space 242
9.3.2 Khora as Place 244
9.4 Community 246
9.4.1 Maimonides' 'Imitatio Dei' and a Redefinition of 247
Phenomenology
9.4.2 Minimal Community Through Differance 249
9.4.3 Differance and Responsibility 251
9.4.4 Law and Justice 255
9.5 Deconstructive Practice of Halakhah 260
CONCLUSION 262
BIBUOGRAPHY 271
INDFX 280