Levinas on the Primacy of the Ethical: Philosophy as Prophecy

217 Pages·2022·1.078 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Bloechl

LEVINAS ON THE PRIMACY OF THE ETHICAL
Northwestern University
Studies in Phenomenology
and
Existential Philosophy
General Editor Anthony J. Steinbock
L E V I N A S O N
T H E P R I M A C Y O F
T H E E T H I C A L
Philosophy as Prophecy
Jeffrey Bloechl
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2022 by Northwestern University. Published 2022 by Northwestern
University Press. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Bloechl, Jeffrey, 1966– author.
Title: Levinas on the primacy of the ethical : philosophy as prophecy / Jeffrey
Bloechl.
Other titles: Northwestern University studies in phenomenology & existential
philosophy.
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2022. | Series:
Northwestern University studies in phenomenology and existential philos-
ophy | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022023762 | ISBN 9780810145443 (paperback) | ISBN
9780810145450 (cloth) | ISBN 9780810145467 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Lévinas, Emmanuel. | Lévinas, Emmanuel— Ethics. | Phe-
nomenology. | Philosophy and religion. | BISAC: PHILOSOPHY / Move-
ments / Phenomenology | PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Classification: LCC B2430.L484 B56 2022 | DDC 194— dc23/eng/20220524
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023762
Let justice flow like a river,
And righteousness a never- ending stream.
— Amos 5:24
In the beginning there is ethics, and
then there are problems.
— Emmanuel Levinas

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Philosophy and Prophecy:
An Internal Reading of Levinas 3
1 Situation and Violence: Levinas, Heidegger, and Sartre 9
2 The Spirituality of Captivity: Being Jewish 33
3 Plurality and Infinity: Ethics as Religion 54
4 The Ethics of Desire: Levinas and Psychoanalysis 72
5 Speech and Transcendence: Language as Ethical Relation 96
6 The One God and the Other: Levinas and Christian Theology 118
Conclusion. Prophecy and the Ethical Plot of Humanity 139
List of Abbreviations 145
Notes 147
Bibliography 189
Index 199

Acknowledgments
An early draft of the first three sections of chapter 1 of this work was
given as a lecture at a conference on “Religion and Violence” organized
by Michael Staudigl at the University of Vienna. Parts of chapter 2 were
given as invited lectures at the Catholic University of America and at the
Universidad de Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile. Chapter 4 originated
from a line of questioning opened up after my plenary lecture at the
first annual “Psychology of the Other” conference, organized by David
Goodman at Lesley University. An early draft, again only of parts, of
chapter 5 was given as a plenary lecture at the 2015 annual meeting of
Simposio Hermeneia, organized by Roberto Wu at the Federal University
of Santa Catarina, Brazil. I am grateful to my hosts and interlocuters at
these events. Chapter 3 is an expanded and modified version of an essay
published by Kevin Hart and Michael Signer (eds.) in The Exorbitant: Em-
manuel Levinas between Christianity and Judaism. I am grateful to Fordham
University for permission to republish it here.
My interpretation of Levinas here originated in my graduate studies
at the KU Leuven, already a long time ago, among careful readers such
as Rudolf Bernet, Roger Burggraeve, Paul Moyaert, Ignace Verhack, and,
above all, Rudi Visker, though he is certain to be dissatisfied with these
results. The philosophy of Levinas is also read and taught with interest
at Boston College, where I have learned a great deal, especially from my
friends Richard Kearney and the late William J. Richardson, and from
the questions, resistance, and occasional agreement of our good students.
I don’t often enough state my particular debt to the works of an
entire range of scholars, only some of whom I have had occasion to cite
along this particular trajectory. I am pleased to mention their names
here: Bettina Bergo, Robert Bernasconi, Rudolf Bernet, Roger Burg-
graeve, Richard A. Cohen, John Drabinski, Didier Franck, Claire Katz,
James Mensch, Paul Moyaert, Adriaan Peperzak, Jacques Taminiaux,
Alan Udoff, Rudi Visker, and Bernhard Waldenfels. I am also pleased to
state my gratitude for the fine work of my copy editor, Paul Mendelson,
which has made my text much more lucid and readable.
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