This volume of essays, all but one previously unpublished,
investigates the question of Levinas's relationship to feminist
thought. Levinas has become known as the philosopher of the Other
-- famously portrayed by Simone de Beauvoir as a patriarchal
thinker who denigrated women by viewing them as the paradigm Other.
Reconsideration of the validity of this interpretation of Levinas
and exploration of what can be derived from his thought more
positively for feminism are two of this volume's primary aims.
Levinas breaks with Heidegger's phenomenology by understanding
the ethical relation to the Other, the face-to-face, as exceeding
the language of ontology. The ethical orientation of Levinas's
philosophy assumes a subject who lives in a world of enjoyment, a
world that is made accessible through the dwelling. The feminine
presence presides over this dwelling, and the feminine face
represents the first welcome. How is this feminine face to be
understood? Does it provide a model for the infinite obligation to
the Other, or is it a proto-ethical relation? The essays in this
volume investigate this dilemma.
Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, and
became a naturalized French citizen in 1930. He was influenced by
Edmund Husserl, with whom he studied phenomenology, and Martin
Heidegger, among others. It was mainly during the 1950s that
Levinas began to work out a highly original philosophy of ethics
with the aim of going beyond the ethically neutral tradition of
ontology. Levinas's first magnum opus, Totality and Infinity
(1961), sought to accomplish this departure through an analysis of
the "face-to-face" relation with the Other.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
