Sensibility and Singularity: The Problem of Phenomenology in Levinas (UPCC Book Collections on Project MUSE) PDF
Preview Sensibility and Singularity: The Problem of Phenomenology in Levinas (UPCC Book Collections on Project MUSE)
Sensibility and Singularity (cid:2) SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy Dennis J. Schmidt, editor Sensibility and Singularity The Problem of Phenomenology in Levinas (cid:2) John E. Drabinski STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2001 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. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address the State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207 Production by Judith Block Marketing by Patrick Durocher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Drabinski, John E., 1968– Sensibility and singularity : the problem of phenomenology in Levinas / John E. Drabinski. p. cm. — (SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-4897-5 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-4898-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Levinas, Emmanuel. 2. Husserl, Edmund, 1859–1938—Influence. I. Title. II. Series. B2430.L484 D73 2001 194—dc21 00-032227 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In memory of Bill Hargrove and Stephanie Walsh And for Maria Cimitile Contents Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Unsuspected Horizons: On the Husserl Question 13 2 The Subject outside Itself: Transcendence and Materiality in the 1940s and 1950s 43 3 The Subject in Question: Relation and Sense in Totality and Infinity 83 4 Sensation, Trace, Enigma: Rethinking Sensibility in the 1960s 129 5 Impressions of Sense: Materiality in Otherwise than Being 167 Notes 221 Selected Bibliography 237 Index 245 vii Acknowledgments Parts of chapter 2 appeared in International Studies in Philosophy XXX, 4 (1998): 23–38. I would like to thank the editor, Professor Leon Goldstein of Binghamton University, for allowing me to reprint those materials. I offer this work in memory of Bill Hargrove and Stephanie Walsh, without whom this world is all the more difficult. From my first memo- ries, they were instructors in the art of writing and in the work of generosity, both of which were lived by authentic spirits. Whatever the passage of time, whatever the fading of memories, their instruction will always be the beginning of my intellectual and moral life. The following project had its beginnings in my dissertation writ- ten at the University of Memphis under the direction of Robert Bernasconi. But the trail of teachers begins, of course, before the Mem- phis faculty. At Seattle University, Robert Cousineau met my first es- say in continental philosophy with the question “Please! Do you believe this nonsense?” Haunted by its bluntness, but moved by its impera- tive, it is a question I still ask myself after every paragraph I write. Jim Risser and Ken Stikkers continue to be important teachers and friends. Burt Hopkins and Marylou Sena taught me how to see phenomeno- logically and stirred in me an independence of thinking, a gift for which I will always be indebted. I consider myself privileged to have worked with the faculty at the University of Memphis. Tina Chanter and Len Lawlor were respon- sible for much of my training in contemporary French philosophy, pushing and pulling my thinking back and forth across the border ix
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