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Title: L'altérité de l'autre chez le dernier Levinas
Author(s): WALDENFELS, Bernhard
Journal: Etudes phénoménologiques - Phenomenological Studies
Volume: 7    Date: 2023   
Pages: 189-202
DOI: 10.2143/EPH.7.0.3291060

Abstract :
After situating Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy in the context of twentieth-century French philosophy, the article examines the theme of the Other (l’Autre), which Levinas develops very early on and which allows him to move away from a totalizing reason by pushing the subject’s 'centre of gravity' to the outside. Then, the fundamental motives of the thought of the last Levinas are discussed, which lead to a rethinking of the subject and the way in which it faces responsibility. Finally, some critical remarks conclude the text, in particular with regard to the risk that the ineluctability of the request of the other leads to an ethical fundamentalism. Against this risk, the article proposes to focus on the margin of inventiveness of the self that responds to requests and thus on the necessarily indirect character of ethics.

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