I. Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995)
Emmanuel Levinas,
the Lithuanian-born French philosopher,[1]
was one of the formative thinkers of twentieth-century Continental philosophy. A number of prominent French philosophers
have been influenced by his work. John
Lechte makes note of this in Fifty Key
Contemporary Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-humanism. According to Lechte, the work of Levinas
profoundly affected the thinking of Jean-Paul Sartre.[2] “Of equal importance,” states Lechte, “is the
way Levinas influenced a later generation of thinkers – people such as
Blanchot, Derrida, Irigaray and Lyotard.”[3]
Even
though his work was mainly formulated as a reaction to German phenomenology,[4]
he is often listed alongside prominent phenomenologists like Husserl.[5]
Although Levinas’ uses terminology and
concepts similar to phenomenology, this designation is problematic. A majority of philosophers engaged in phenomenology
are concerned solely with ontology.[6] Levinas still analyzes the nature of “Being,”
but does so in a way quite different from traditional phenomenology. Richard Kearney and Mara Rainwater illustrate
the distinctive character of Levinas’ approach to phenomenology in the book The Continental Philosophy Reader:
One of the most significant
ethical thinkers of the twentieth century, Emmanuel Levinas has expanded the
domain of phenomenology beyond the projects initiated by Husserl and
Heidegger. For Levinas, the crucial
focus and central concern of his own work is the priority of ‘otherness,’ a
radical alterity that demands our ethical response.[7]
While the quote above provides
initial insight into Levinas’ approach to philosophical inquiry, an examination
of his work is necessary to develop a better understanding of his method.
In
the essay “Ethics as First Philosophy,” Levinas shows that the primary question
for philosophy should be related to the ethics of being. He states that the ultimate question for the
philosopher to ask
is the question of the meaning of
being: not the ontology of the understanding of that extraordinary verb being,
but the ethics of its justice. The
question par excellence or the
question of philosophy. Not ‘Why being
rather than nothing?’ but how being justifies itself.[8]
It is interesting to note that
Levinas does not intend to answer this question par excellence. Rather, he
is making the case that Western metaphysics has been asking the wrong
question. His task is to refocus the
endeavor of philosophy.
The
method of Emmanuel Levinas is essentially critical, and his argument is
presented in a negative form. Rather
than presenting a thesis and then constructing arguments that help to prove it,
Levinas files through the vast archives of Western philosophy, critiquing the
various positions presented thus far. In
this respect, his philosophic method is more like rabbinic Midrash than
traditional proposition-based philosophy.
Levinas
begins “Ethics as First Philosophy” by clearly stating what he believes
constitutes the site of knowledge and meaning for Western philosophy:
The correlation between knowledge, understood as disinterested
contemplation, and being, is,
according to our philosophic tradition, the very site of intelligibility, the
occurrence of meaning (sens). The comprehension of being – the semantics of
this verb – would thus be the very possibility of or the occasion for wisdom
and the wise and, as such is first
philosophy. The intellectual, and
even spiritual life, of the West, through the priority it gives to knowledge
identified with Spirit, demonstrates its fidelity to the first philosophy of
Aristotle…[9]
He
moves from the Aristotelian first philosophy through a discussion of Husserl,[10]
Hegel,[11]
Merleau-Ponty,[12]
and Heidegger.[13] At each point Levinas shows that the method
used by the philosopher demonstrates fidelity to the project of Aristotle, and
to the perception of knowledge as an appropriation of the “otherness” of the
known.[14] In clarified terms, Levinas wants to recover
a conception of reality that is defined by an awareness of relational
responsibility. Philosophy is not (or
should not be) an abstract exercise conducted by a lone individual. On the contrary, one should take the presence
of other persons into account at the beginning of one’s inquiry.
In doing this, he
leads his readers to question each of the philosophical systems which have
proposed a positive solution to the question of being. By showing the problems inherent in each of
the systems he confronts, Levinas hopes to lead the reader to a specific
philosophical question. This question,
as mentioned above, is whether or not philosophy has been asking the wrong
question, from the wrong vantage point.[15] Ultimately, Levinas hopes that his
demonstration will enable philosophy to move beyond Hamlet’s question regarding
the existence of the “self,” and into the question regarding one’s
responsibility to the “other.”[16]
II. Alain Badiou (b. 1937)
In
a certain respect, the French philosopher[17]
Alain Badiou holds a view of philosophy similar to that of Emmanuel
Levinas. In the article “The Desire for
Philosophy and the Contemporary World,” Badiou states that philosophy possesses
an ethical character. Quoting an
expression used by the poet Arthur Rimbaud, Badiou indicates that philosophy is
a form of ‘logical revolt,’ setting thought up “against injustice, against the
defective state of the world and life.”[18] For Badiou, ethical concern (discontent)
appears to be a necessary condition for philosophy. He states, “[f]undamentally the desire of
philosophy first implies a dimension of revolt, for there is no philosophy without some muted discontent of
thinking as it confronts the world as it is.”[19]
(emphasis added)
Next,
Badiou moves from philosophy’s point of origin to a description of the four
dimensions which philosophy possesses and the pressures exerted by contemporary
Western culture upon these dimensions.
According to Badiou the four dimensions of philosophy are revolt, logic,
universality and risk.[20] The abovementioned dimension of revolt mainly
consists of the occurrence of cognitive dissonance within thinking persons when
they are confronted with injustice.
Logic “is the belief in the power of argument and reason.”[21] This dimension of philosophic thought
“implies universality,” or the idea that “philosophy addresses all men as
thinking beings and supposes that all men think.”[22] Finally, what Badiou means by risk is that doing
philosophy is always an activity surrounded by one’s circumstances.[23] To put it another way, philosophy is not
possible in a vacuum and it always entails a certain measure of decision and
commitment.
Badiou
also asserts that philosophy is in a current state of crisis. This results from four pressures that
contemporary Western culture brings to bear upon the task of philosophy. These four obstacles to philosophy are “the
reign of merchandise, the reign of communication, the need for technical specialization
and the necessity for realistic calculations about security.”[24] Confronted with these four hindrances,
philosophy has taken on a negative character defined by an emphasis on the
study of language. Badiou states that
contemporary philosophy holds that the metaphysics of truth is impossible.[25] He also notes that when confronted by this
reality, most contemporary philosophers consign their activities hermeneutical
games. Thus for contemporary
philosophers, “language is the crucial site of thought because that is where
the question of meaning is at stake,” and “[t]he question of meaning replaces
the classical question of truth.”[26] For Badiou, this situation is problematic and
only a reformulation of philosophy can reinvigorate its practice.[27]
In
the article “Philosophy as Creative Repetition,” Badiou provides an outline of
his position on the positive function of philosophy and clarifies his method. Badiou suggests that the essence of philosophy
“lies in the direct transformation of a subject, it is a kind of radical
conversion, a complete change of life.”[28] For Badiou, as for Levinas, philosophy is not
synonymous with knowledge, but rather consists in a certain type of activity. In one sense, philosophy is the proposition
of a “new division” and a “new hierarchy” which helps to clarify innovations that
define particular periods in history.[29] This is why Badiou describes philosophy as
being a response to innovations in science, art and politics.[30] These are the necessary preconditions for the
creation of a new philosophy. On the
other hand, philosophy always constitutes a type of “logical revolt” by
challenging a previous order. While many
philosophers (especially in the modern period) speak of an “end of philosophy,”[31] Badiou asserts that philosophy is essentially
in a state of perpetual revolution and discovery. He explains that philosophy is “the act of
reorganizing all theoretical and practical experiences, by proposing a new
great normative division, which reverses an established intellectual order, and
promotes new values beyond the common ones.”[32]
III. Analysis
Initially,
the philosophic approaches of Emmanuel Levinas and Alain Badiou appear to be at
odds. Levinas’ philosophy inaugurated
much of the postmodern philosophy[33]
that Badiou criticizes.[34] Badiou speaks positively of creating a “more
determined and more imperative philosophy”[35]
characterized by the potential for universal inclusion of persons. Levinas focuses on the “alterity” of reality,
asserting that any attempt to universalize truth is mistaken.[36]
Despite
their differences, both Levinas and Badiou have an interest in the ethical
aspect of philosophy. For Levinas,
ethics should be the main focus of philosophy.
Similarly, Badiou views the function of philosophy as setting thought “against
injustice, against the defective state of the world and life.”[37] Thus, both philosophers express the idea that
philosophy is supposed to be engaged in the world of human action. Badiou and Levinas both appear to affirm
Levinas’ suggestion that justice, rather than ontology, should be the focus of
philosophy.[38]
Works
Cited
Badiou, Alain “The Desire for
Philosophy and the Contemporary World,” http://www.lacan.com/badesire.html.
Badiou, Alain “Philosophy as
Creative Repetition” in http://www.lacan.com/symptom8_articles/badiou18.html.
Lechte, John Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-humanism
(London: Routledge, 2008).
“Levinas, Emmanuel” in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy:
Second Edition, ed. Robert Audi (New York: Cambridge University Press,
1999).
Levinas,
Emmanuel "Ethics as First Philosophy," in The Continental Philosophy Reader, ed. Richard Kearney and Mara
Rainwater (London: Routledge, 1996).
[1]
“Levinas, Emmanuel” in The Cambridge
Dictionary of Philosophy: Second Edition, ed. Robert Audi (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1999), 498.
[2]
John Lechte, Fifty Key Contemporary
Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-humanism (London: Routledge, 2008),
44-45.
[3]
Ibid., 45.
[4]
While Levinas viewed his philosophy as a reaction to certain tendencies which
had permeated the entirety of Western philosophy, he developed his
philosophical perspective in an environment dominated by the work of Husserl
and Heidegger. Thus, Levinas
incorporated many of the concepts and terms used by German phenomenologists.
[5]
John Lechte, Fifty Key Contemporary
Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-humanism (London: Routledge, 2008),
see index.
[6]
See the work of both Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.
[7]
Richard Kearney and Mara Rainwater, The
Continental Philosophy Reader (London: Routledge, 1996), 122.
[8]
Emmanuel Levinas, "Ethics as First
Philosophy," in The Continental
Philosophy Reader, ed. Richard Kearney and Mara Rainwater (London:
Routledge, 1996), 134.
[9]
Ibid., 124.
[10]
Ibid., 125 - 127
[11]
Ibid., 126
[12]
Ibid., 127 -128
[13]
Ibid., 128 -133
[14]
Ibid., 124.
[15]
Ibid., 133 - 134
[16]
Ibid., 133 - 134.
[17]
John Lechte, Fifty Key Contemporary
Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-humanism (London: Routledge, 2008),
233.
[18]
Alain Badiou, “The Desire for Philosophy and the Contemporary World,” http://www.lacan.com/badesire.html
[19]
Ibid.
[20]
Ibid.
[21]
Ibid.
[22]
Ibid.
[23]
Ibid.
[24]
Ibid.
[25]
Ibid.
[26]
Ibid.
[27]
Ibid.
[28]
Alain Badiou, “Philosophy as Creative Repetition” in http://www.lacan.com/symptom8_articles/badiou18.html
[29]
Ibid.
[30]
Ibid.
[32]
Ibid.
[33]
John Lechte, Fifty Key Contemporary
Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-humanism (London: Routledge, 2008),
45.
[34]
Alain Badiou, “The Desire for Philosophy and the Contemporary World,” http://www.lacan.com/badesire.html
[35]
Ibid.
[36]
Emmanuel Levinas, "Ethics as First
Philosophy," in The Continental
Philosophy Reader, ed. Richard Kearney and Mara Rainwater (London:
Routledge, 1996), 132
[37]
Alain Badiou, “The Desire for Philosophy and the Contemporary World,” http://www.lacan.com/badesire.html
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