DOCSLIB.ORG

Un-Common Sociality: Thinking Sociality with Levinas

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

UN-COMMON SOCIALITY Thinking sociality with Levinas Ramona Rat SÖDERTÖRN PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES Södertörn Philosophical Studies is a book series published under the direction of the Department of Philosophy at Södertörn University. The series consists of monographs and anthologies in philosophy, with a special focus on the Continental-European tradition. It seeks to provide a platform for innovative contemporary philosophical research. The volumes are published mainly in English and Swedish. The series is edited by Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback and Hans Ruin. Cover image: le film oscille entre archives de spectacle et prononciation, anagramme et synonyme (56 x 81 cm), Irina & Silviu Szekely, 2012. UN-COMMON SOCIALITY SÖDERTÖRN PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES 2016 Un-common Sociality Thinking sociality with Levinas Ramona Rat SÖDERTÖRN PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES Södertörn University The Library SE-141 89 Huddinge www.sh.se/publications © The author Cover image: le film oscille entre archives de spectacle et prononciation, anagramme et synonyme (56 x 81 cm), Irina & Silviu Szekely, 2012. Graphic Form: Per Lindblom & Jonathan Robson Printed by Elanders, Stockholm 2016 Södertörn Philosophical Studies 19 ISSN 1651–6834 Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 124 ISSN 1652–7399 ISBN 978–91–87843–60–0 (print) ISBN 978–91–87843–61–7 (digital) Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to sincerely thank my supervisors Fredrika Spindler and Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback for their guidance and endless support throughout my doctoral years. Their vast knowledge and insightful advice, along with their countless careful readings of my text in its different stages, helped me develop this thesis and bring clarity to my thoughts. Thank you for your tireless help and infinite patience! I would also like to express my gratitude to the School of Culture and Education from Södertörn University and especially the Philosophy Depart- ment, for the highly professional and friendly environment that I had the privilege to enjoy during my studies. The opportunity to present my work on various occasions at the Higher Seminars in Philosophy made possible for me to benefit from a number of useful comments from both senior staff and fellow doctoral candidates. I would like to thank in particular Hans Ruin, Irina Sandomirskaja, Nicholas Smith, Fredrik Svenaeus, Sven-Olov Wallenstein, Charlotta Weigelt, Anders Bartonek, Jonna Bornemark, Erik Bryngelsson, Carl Cederberg, Lovisa Håkansson, Krystof Kasprzak, David Payne, Johan Sehlberg, Anna-Karin Selberg, Gustav Strandberg, Gabriel Itkes Sznap and Björn Sjöstrand. I also remain greatly indebted to my oppo- nents on these seminars, Paulina Remes, Bettina Bergo, Carl Cederberg and Susanna Lindberg, for their attentive reading and constructive critique. An important role in rendering possible the writing of this thesis has The Centre for Baltic and East European Research (CBEES) and The Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS). CBEES and BEEGS have offered a fruitful academic milieu where I always felt welcomed. For this, I am deeply thankful to director Rebecka Lettevall, all the faculty and staff. I also thank Ewa Rogström, Nina Cajhamre, Lena Arvidson and Karin Lindebrant for their cheerful spirit and kind assistance, especially regarding the ad- ministrative tasks. During my studies I have received the generous financial support of The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, for which I am truly thankful. I am also grateful to Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse and to Gunvor och Josef Anérs Stiftelse for offering financial support for the final stage of my writing. In the course of my studies I had the opportunity to meet and have inspiring discussions with wonderful people, among them Tanya Jukkala, Anne Kaun, Paul Karlsson, Jaska Turunen, Florence Fröhlig, Eva Schwarz, Steffen Werther, Mirey Gorgis, Maryam Adjam, Karin Edberg, Péter Balogh, Carina Guyard and Ola Svenonius. I am profoundly grateful for their supporting friendship. I thank my dear friends Andreea and Silviu Székely for allowing their beautiful artwork to be on the cover of this book, as well as for the many hours of our long-distance philosophical conver- sations. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to those who are closest to me. Thank you Beni, Cristina, Klári and Tati for always helping me out and staying by my side, no matter what. Vă mulțumesc! Contents Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. 11 Works by Levinas .................................................................................................. 11 Other works ........................................................................................................... 12 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 13 Reading Levinas .................................................................................................... 13 General aims and structure of the argument .................................................... 18 Reading about Levinas ......................................................................................... 24 PART I Subjectivity and Multiplicity ..................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 1 Substitution ................................................................................................................. 33 1.1. De-posed subject ............................................................................................ 35 1.2. Inside-out ........................................................................................................ 40 CHAPTER 2 Bad Consciousness and Bad Time ........................................................................... 55 2.1. The an-archy of the hither side .................................................................... 56 2.2. Non-intentional consciousness.................................................................... 59 2.3. Diachrony of Time ........................................................................................ 71 CHAPTER 3 Self and Multiplicity ................................................................................................... 79 3.1. The radicalization of multiplicity ................................................................ 80 3.1.1. Subjectivity in “Totality and Infinity” ................................................ 81 3.1.2. Radical multiplicity ............................................................................... 88 3.2. Radical multiplicity in “Otherwise than Being” ......................................... 94 3.2.1. The continuity in thinking subjectivity .............................................. 96 3.2.2. For the other(s) ...................................................................................... 97 CHAPTER 4 The Question of Justice ............................................................................................ 101 4.1. An outside dimension.................................................................................. 102 4.2. “Inside-out” and “outside” intertwined .................................................... 106 4.2.1. Ethics and justice ................................................................................. 106 4.2.2. The saying and the said ....................................................................... 119 4.3. Singular and plural ....................................................................................... 127 PART II Sociality ...................................................................................................................... 133 CHAPTER 5 Sociality: the Word and the Notion ........................................................................ 135 5.1. Sociality – the notion ................................................................................... 136 5.2. The word ‘sociality’ ...................................................................................... 144 CHAPTER 6 The Presence and Absence of Sociality in Levinas’s Early- and Middle-period Works ......................................................................................................................... 149 6.1. “Existence and Existents” and “Time and the Other” ............................. 151 6.2. “Totality and Infinity” ................................................................................. 159 CHAPTER 7 The Presence and Absence of Sociality in Levinas’s Later Works ..................... 171 7.1. The ‘correction’ of the I-Thou .................................................................... 172 7.2. Sociality and proximity................................................................................ 181 7.3. Sociality and love .......................................................................................... 187 7.4. Sociality and society ..................................................................................... 196 CHAPTER 8 Thinking Sociality with Levinas against Levinas .................................................. 201 8.1. The critique of the dyad .............................................................................. 202 8.2. Sociality as Facing ........................................................................................ 206 PART III Un-common Sociality .............................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • (Month 2015), No. 27 Christopher Fynsk, Last Steps: Maurice Blan

    (Month 2015), No. 27 Christopher Fynsk, Last Steps: Maurice Blan

    H-France Review Volume 15 (2015) Page 1 H-France Review Vol. 15 (Month 2015), No. 27 Christopher Fynsk, Last Steps: Maurice Blanchot’s Exilic Writing. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013. viii + 297 pp. Notes and index. $95.00 U.S. (hb). ISBN 9780823251025; $28.00 U.S. (pb). ISBN 9780823251032. Review by Jeffrey Mehlman, Boston University. The “last steps” that grace Christopher Fynsk’s engaging study of Maurice Blanchot with its title are in fact transposed from the title of Le pas au-delà, the maddeningly abstract series of prose fragments that Blanchot published in 1973. On the one hand, the “pace” (pas) or step beyond, an invitation to transgression; on the other, a veto of that very proposition: the negative pas declining to affirm any “beyond” or transgression at all. These are “steps” that seem to be canceling each other out, figuring a form of paralysis that might also be characterized as labyrinthine, essentially thwarted. And that thwartedness, canceling out every would-be advance or progress, figures in turn the exilic aspect of Blanchot’s writing alluded to in Fynsk’s subtitle. Writing is a journey or “exodus” into the wilderness, a protracted exercise in disorientation that sees Blanchot invoking the second book of the Bible, the epic of wandering or suffering Judaism, of Jews in sufferance, as a kind of core fantasy (or reality) of literature. The precision of that double inscription--the transgressive step (pas) beyond that which is simultaneously “not (pas) beyond”--as formula for a paralysis akin alternately to the disorientation of the wilderness and the experience of being at sea, will call to mind the dimension of dissemination or différance that became touchstones of deconstruction.
  • Jean-Luc Nancy and the Deconstruction of Christianity By

    Jean-Luc Nancy and the Deconstruction of Christianity By

    Jean-Luc Nancy and the Deconstruction of Christianity by Tenzan Eaghll A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department for the Study of Religion University of Toronto ©Copyright by Tenzan Eaghll 2016 Jean-Luc Nancy and the Deconstruction of Christianity Tenzan Eaghll Doctor of Philosophy Department for the Study of Religion University of Toronto 2016 Abstract This dissertation is a study of the origins and development of the French philosopher Jean- Luc Nancy’s work on the “deconstruction of Christianity.” By situating Nancy's work in light of the broader Continental philosophical analysis of religion in the 20th Century, it argues that what Nancy calls the "deconstruction of Christianity" and the "exit from religion" is his unique intervention into the problem of metaphysical nihilism in Western thought. The author explains that Nancy’s work on religion does not provide a new “theory” for the study of religion or Christianity, but shows how Western metaphysical foundations are caught up in a process of decomposition that has been brought about by Christianity. For Nancy, the only way out of nihilism is to think of the world as an infinite opening unto itself, for this dis- encloses any transcendent principle of value or immanent notion of meaninglessness in the finite spacing of sense, and he finds the resources to think this opening within Christianity. By reading Christian notions like "God" and "creation ex nihilo" along deconstructive lines and connecting them with the rise and fall of this civilization that once called itself "Christendom," he attempts to expose "the sense of an absenting" that is both the condition of possibility for the West and what precedes, succeeds, and exceeds it.
  • The Question of Otherness in the Philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy

    The Question of Otherness in the Philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy

    GOLDSMITHS Research Online Thesis (PhD) Rugo, Daniele Powers of Existence: The Question of Otherness in the Philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy You may cite this version as: Rugo, Daniele, 2010. Powers of Existence: The Question of Otherness in the Philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths. [Thesis]: Goldsmiths Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/2643/ COPYRIGHT This is a thesis accepted for a Higher Degree of the University of London. It is an unpublished document and the copyright is held by the author. All persons consulting this thesis must read and abide by the Copyright Declaration below. COPYRIGHT DECLARATION I recognise that the copyright and other relevant Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of the above- described thesis rests with the author and/or other IPR holders and that no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. ACCESS A non-exclusive, non-transferable licence is hereby granted to those using or reproducing, in whole or in part, the material for valid purposes, providing the copyright owners are acknowledged using the normal conventions. Where specific permission to use material is required, this is identified and such permission must be sought from the copyright holder or agency cited. REPRODUCTION All material supplied via Goldsmiths Library and Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO) is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, and duplication or sale of all or part of any of the Data Collections is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for your research use or for educational purposes in electronic or print form.
  • THL 76 Literary Theory/Philosophy

    THL 76 Literary Theory/Philosophy

    THL 76 Literary Theory/Philosophy n this powerful work, Jean-Luc Nancy exam1'nes 1•11n · 'd · 1 mumty as an 1 t>ll that has dominated modern thought and traces t'ts ru) t' t · ~ , a ton o concept~ of experiem~e, disl·ourse, and the individual. Contrary to popular Western notions of l'ommunity, Nancy shows that it is neither a projel·t of fusion nor production. Rather, he argues, community I' an he definf'cl through the political naturt' of its resistance against immanent power. "'The Inoperative Community contains philosophical developments of the most original kind on the theme of community, the role of myth in the establishment of community, and the role of remythization today. In addition it continues a discussion with Blanchot and Bataille, thinkers of the first order." -Alphonso Lingis, Professor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University "This is a major contribution to the most important current debate in literary tht>ory. It takes an original position and provides strong arguments. This is a book to be reckoned with." -Wlad Godzich, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Montreal Jean-Luc Nancy teaches at the University of Human Sciences in Strasbourg, France. He is the author, with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, of The Literary Absolute (1988). Peter Connor recently received a doctorate in French from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently assistant professor of French at Barnard College. Among the philosophical esr;ays he has translated are several by Georges Bataille. ISBN 0-8166-1924-7 (B 9 0 0 0 O> ~430 [.263 Cuvt•r tlesign t.y Dawn Mathers Univenity of Minnesota Press I c~ 9 7 ..

  • P O I E S I S a Journal of the Arts & Communication Volume 15, 2013 Editor: Stephen K

    P O I E S I S A Journal of the Arts & Communication Volume 15, 2013 Editor: Stephen K. Levine Associate Editor: Jessica Moore • Art Director, Layout & Design: Kristin Briggs Poetry Editors: Elizabeth Gordon McKim and Shara Claire Art Curator: Lauren Schaffer • EGS Press Manager: Sarah Farr All Rights Reserved ©2013 EGS Press, except where otherwise indicated. 283 Danforth Avenue, #118 Toronto, Ontario, M4K 1N2 Canada [email protected] • www.egspress.com tel: (416) 829-8014 ISSN 1492-4986/2013 Cover Art: Writing the Moon by Chris Cran (2010), Ink and acrylic on foam core, 11” x 8.75”. Private Collection Other titles available from EGS Press: Minstrels of Soul: Intermodal Expressive Therapy (P. Knill et al) Tending the Fire: Studies in Art, Therapy and Creativity (E. G. Levine) Crossing Boundaries: Explorations in Therapy and the Arts– A Festschrift for Paolo Knill (S. Levine, Editor) To Day: Poems and Poetics (Margo Fuchs-Knill) Song the Only Victory: Poetry Against War (S. Levine) In Praise of Poiesis: The Arts and Human Existence– A Festschrift for Stephen K. Levine (E. G. Levine and P. Antze, Editors) Selected back issues of POIESIS are also available. POIESIS: A Journal of the Arts and Communication is an annual periodical which publishes research from the fields of Expressive Arts and Media & Communications. It is supported by the European Graduate School (EGS) in Switzerland, which offers Masters and Doctoral programs in these fields. Submissions for POIESIS XVI (2014), see “Call for Papers” on page 220. Printed in Canada articles Editor’s Introduction Stephen K. Levine 4 Poiesis and the Unworking of Art: A Conversation with Jean-Luc Nancy Stephen K.
  • Introduction: 'Deconstruction, If Such a Thing Exists .. .'

    Introduction: 'Deconstruction, If Such a Thing Exists .. .'

    Notes Introduction: 'Deconstruction, if such a thing exists .. .' 1. This phrase is taken from a response by Jacques Derrida to a question from Colin MacCabe. The first epigraph of this introduction is taken from the same interview, 'Some questions and responses', in The Linguistics of Writing: Arguments between Language and Literature, ed. Nigel Fabb, Derek Attridge, Alan Durant and Colin MacCabe (1987), 252-64. All further references to this and other works by Derrida are given parenthetically in the text. Derrida's phrase is echoed elsewhere in this book, in the words of J. Hillis Miller, Peggy Kamuf, and in the title of Chapter 1, following this 'Introduction'. Together, and dispersed throughout the text, these phrases should disturb any certainty concerning received notions about the identity of deconstruction. 2. I am borrowing here from J. Hillis Miller, in The Ethics of Reading: Kant, de Man, Eliot, Trollope, James, and Benjamin (1987), 9, 43. Miller's work will be further discussed in Chapter 5, below. For more on Miller and his work as a critic in relation to narratology, see Mark Currie's volume in this series, Postmodern Narrative Theory (1998). 3. The title, its structure, function and operation, is discussed below in Chapter 1. The concept of the title is discussed in Chapter 3 4. I have chosen the French verb entamer for the multiple meanings which it puts into play. The verb can mean: to initiate, to enter into, to start (an activity or journey), to open, to undermine, to shake or to test, to eat into, to cut into, to take a bite.