Re-Reading Lévinas

by Robert Bernasconi, Simon Critchley (Editor)

These essays provoke new responses to the work of the eminent French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas through an analysis of how the problematics of reading, deconstruction, feminism, and psychotherapy complicate and deepen Levinas's account of responsibility. The re-reading presented here continues and expands on the long-standing debate between Levinas and Jacques Derrida. Published in English for the first time are two key texts in this debate: "Wholly Otherwise" by Levinas and "At this very moment in this work here I am" by Derrida.

Genres: Philosophy

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 1991

Reviews

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for anyone interested in Levinas... So many good pieces full of insight.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highlights include: Irigaray's critique of Levinas's inability to think sexual difference and the feminine Other with the suggestion that what is needed is a recovery of another genealogy, a genealogy that stretches from the feminine Divine to the women lover (l'amante); Levinas's own response to Derrida's writing, which suggests that it is at once a revolution in philosophy as significant as Kant's critique of pure reason and locates at the center of that writing a movement that is destructive, an army driving refugees before it; and Derrida's second direct engagement with Levinas's texts, which (under the enigmatic title "At this moment in this work here I am") is at least in one respect a polyvocal interrogation of Abraham's hineini, the "here I am" before the Other and God.

[Mo2this]

especially: Chapter 2 'at this very moment in this work here I am'