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Emmanuel Levinas on Evasion and Moral Responsibility

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Emmanuel Levinas on Evasion and Moral Responsibility BEYOND TRAGEDY AND THE SACRED: EMMANUEL LEVINAS ON EVASION AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY JOHN CARUANA A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial hlfilrnent of the requirernents for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought York University Toronto. Ontario July 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationaIe of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON KI A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fonnat électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othefwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Beyond Tragedy and the Sacred: Emmanuel Levinas on Evasion and Moral Responsibility by John Caruana a dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHtLOSOPHY O Permission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF YORK UNIVERSITY to lend or seIl copies of this dissertation, to the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA to microfilm this dissertation and to Iend or seIl copies of the film, and to UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to publish an abstract of this dissertation. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts frorn it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. ABSTRACT Levinas argues that tragic descriptions - fkom the Greeks to Nietzsche and Heidegger - rarely dare to draw the fùll implications of asserting that being is tragic. At the same time that it accurately attests to the irremediable character of being. the tragic position proposes a remedy that presupposes the self s capacity for transformation and meaningfulness. Heidegger- for exarnple. holds that Dasein possesses as its highest possibility the capacity to embrace its finitude. For Levinas. however. the self is mired in a hopeless state of perpetzial ambivalence - oscillating between moments of enjoyment and a horror of being. If the self lacks the means to rectify its condition in being. what is the genuine source of meaningfülness and purpose in Our lives? Levinas attempts to respond to this question by inquiring into what he dubs the Desire for transcendence. Though western phiIosophy has at times voiced this Desire - for example. Plato's notion of a -good beyond being' or Descartes's conception of the idea of the Infinite - ultimately. the philosophical tradition betrays the Good. because transcendence is almost always conceived in relation to anonymous being. For Levinas- the true -site' of the Good is the face or presence of the other human being that speaks to me directiy. The deepest level of the human drarna takes place in what he calls the "ethical intrigue" that binds the self to the Other. The Other's plea for me to address the ruins of being affects me immediatel y. Integrity or moral wholeness involves the mature capacity to accept bad conscience - which always bears the Other's imprint -as fundamental to being human. The capacity to be responsible necessitates desacralization. Levinas awakens us to the importance of uprooting the sacred impulse at both the social and the individual level. -iv- The sacred is the attempt to bypass the ethical intrigue for direct communion with a supposed supematural worId. The sacred experience, like the rragic position. ultimately promotes moral evasiveness by undennining the Other's cal1 to be responsible. ACKNO WLEDGMENTS 1 have incurred rnany debts in completing this dissertation. I am especially indebted to Lorraine Code whose critical feedback helped me to clari@ rny arguments and sharpen my presentation. Her professionalism and unfaihg support sustained my project, even when 1 was most inclined to abandon it. 1 count myself fortunate to have had her as rny supervisor. I am aIso indebted to David Jopling and Deborah Britzman. David offered detailed and constructive observations. especially conceniing Levinas's relationship to the philosophical tradition. Echoes of the conversations I shared with Deborah over coffee reverberate in much of this present work - in particdar. chapter four. I am also grateful to Ji11 Kobbins for agreeing to read the entire dissertation. Her encouragement and questions are greatly appreciated. I owe thanks to Stephen Levine for reading and commenting on an earlier drafi of chapter one. Many of the arguments that I develop in this work found their inspiration in conversations with several of my friends: Mark Blackell. Ainsworth Clarke. Kent EMS. Joshua Ghisalberti, Jonathan Salem-Wiseman. and Samantha Webb. 1 am especiall>. gratefûl to Ainsworth and Kent for their ongoing intellectual stimulation. Parts of chapters one and three originally appeared under the title "Levinas's Concept of Proximity: Redeeming the Disaster of Being." in Infernarionu2 Srrtdies it7 Philosophy (30:1 [1998)] -33-46). 1 am grateful to the publisher for permission to reprint this material here. Finally 1 doubt 1 could have written this dissertation without the support of my wife. Teresa Sirnrn. Her companionship and intellectual engagement saw me through the many ups and downs of this process. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................... iv-x- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. .......................................... vi-vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................ ix Chapter 1. THE DISASTER OF BEING: BEYOND TRAGEDY. .............. 12 II. -DESIRE' AND CONSCIENCE: SEEKNG THEHIDDENGOOD ........................................ 53 III. THE ETHICAL iNTE2IGUE: REDEEMING THE DISASTER OF BErNG. .................................. 99 IV. -GOD WRITES STRAIGHT WITH CROOKED LINES': FROM THE SACRED TO HOLINESS ........................... 153 CONCLUSION ................................................... 211 NOTES ......................................................... 214 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................. 243 ABBREVIATIONS WORKS BY EMMANUEL LEVINAS AE Autrement qzi 'être, ou au-delà de 1 'essence. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff- 1974. ATr Alterity and Transcendence. Translated by Michael B. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. BI --Beyond Intentionality" In Philosophy in France Today. Edited by Alan Montefiore. Cambridge and London: Cambridge Universi5 Press. 1983. BPW Emrnanztel Levirtas: Basic Philosophical Writings- Edi ted b>-Robert Bernasconi. Simon Critchley. and Adriaan T. Peperzak. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1996. CP Collecred Philosophical Papers. Trandated by Alphonso Lingis. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff. 1986. DD Leçon Talmudique ('-Désacralisation et désensorceIIement"). In L 'Autre dans la conscience juive: Le sacrée et le couple. Edited by Jean Halpérin and Georges Lévitte, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. 1973. DE De I ëvasion. Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1982. DEE De l 'exisrence ~ Z 'exisranr. 2nd ed. Paris: Vrin. 1978. DEL "Dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas." In Fuce to Fuce ~imirhLe~Ymts. Edited by Richard A. Cohen. Albany. N.Y.: State University of New York Press. 1986. DF Diflcult Freedom: Essays on Judaism. Translated bq' Séan Hand. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1990. DL Dijficile liberté. Essais sur le judaïsme. 2nd. ed. Pans: AIbin Michel. 1976. DMT Dieu, la mort et le temps (Paris: Livre de Poche. 1995). DR "Diachrony and Representation" In TO. DVI De Dieu qui vient à l 'idée. Paris: Vrin, 1 982. EDE En décoztvrant Ifexistence avec Husserl er Heidegger. 2nd ed. Pans: Vnn- 1967. fiistence and Existents. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. The Hague: Martinus Nij hoff. 1978. Éthique et infini Dialogues avec Philippe Nerno. Paris: Fayard. 1982. Ethics and Infini&- Conversations rsirh Philippe Nenzo. Translated by Richard Cohen. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. 1985. Emmanuel Lévinas: Essai et entretiens. Interview by François Po irié. Paris: Babel. 1996, EN Entre nous. Essais sur- le penser--&/ autre- Paris: Bernard Grasset, 199 1. EP -*Épreuvesd'une pensée," in L 'Herne 60 ( 199 1 ): 139- 153. GCM Of God H%o Cornes ru Mirtd. Translated by Bettina Bergo. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1998. HAH Hzrmanisme de Z autre hornnle. Montpellier: Fata Morgana. 1972. rH Les Impréws de Ifhistoire. Edited by Pierre Hayat. Saint-Clement-la- Rivière: Fata Morgana, 1994. The Le\*inas Reader, Edited by Sean Hand. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: BIackwell, 1989. "Martin Heidegger and Ontology." Diacritics 26: 1 (1 996): 1 1-32. Otheï-rvise tharz Being or Beyond Essence. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 198 1. Outside the Subjecr. Translated by Michael B. Smith. Stanford. Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994. Proper Names. Translated by Michael B. Smith. Stanford?Calif.: Stanford University- Press. 1996. PSD "De la prière sans demande.
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