Summary
The primacy of the practice over the theoretical attitude can be considered the core of Levinas’ philosophy. But the question can be asked whether this absolute primacy does adequate justice to the critical function of philosophy. (a) Philosophy necessarily has to submit the ethical (the revelation of the Infinite) to reason in order to prevent it from false interpretations. (b) Secondly, the ethical is linked with a finite world. The ambiguity of this historical reality implies a closer unity between the practical and theoretical. (c) Finally, the welcoming of the Infinite is not purely ethical attitude, but an openness beyond infinite responsibility.
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Notes
Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, translated by A. Lingis, The Hague (Nijhoff), 1981, p. 166. [Henceforth to be abbreviated in the text as O.B.]
Totality and Infinity. An Essay on Exteriority, translated by A. Lingis, The Hague (Nijhoff), 1979, p. 43. [Henceforth to be abbreviated in the text as T.I.]
A. Peperzak, ‘Some Remarks on Hegel, Kant, and Levinas’ in Face to Face with Levinas, ed. R. A. Cohen, Albany (SUNY Press), 1986, pp. 205–217, p. 216.
Freedom and Command’, in Collected Philosophical Papers, translated by A. Lingis, Dordrecht (Nijhoff Kluwer), 1987, p. 22.
Critique of Practical Reason, translated by L. W. Beck, Indianapolis (Bobbs-Merrill), 1977, p. 76.
Difficile liberté. Essais sur le Judaisme, Paris (A. Michel), 1976 (2nd edition), p. 233.
Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, translated by Greene & Hudson, New York (Harper and Row), 1960, p. 158.
Cf. A. Peperzak, `Die Bedeutung des Werkes von Emmanuel Levinas für das Christliche Denken. Gedanken zu einer Religion des Erwachsenen’. in Verantwortung für den Anderen und die Frage nach Gott. Zum Werk von E. Levinas, ed. H. H. Henrix, Aachen (Einhard Verlag), 1984, pp. 71–87.
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Dhondt, U. (1992). Ethics, History, Religion. The Limits of the Philosophy of Levinas. In: van Tongeren, P., Sars, P., Bremmers, C., Boey, K. (eds) Eros and Eris. Phaenomenologica, vol 127. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1464-8_21
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