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Levinas's Symbiotic Phenomenology of Infinity and Totality Christian Wood

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Levinas's Symbiotic Phenomenology of Infinity and Totality Christian Wood University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Philosophy ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 9-3-2010 Levinas's Symbiotic Phenomenology of Infinity and Totality Christian Wood Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/phil_etds Recommended Citation Wood, Christian. "Levinas's Symbiotic Phenomenology of Infinity and Totality." (2010). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ phil_etds/12 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LEVINAS'S SYMBIOTIC PHENOMENOLOGY OF INFINITY AND TOTALITY BY CHRISTIAN C. WOOD B.A., Philosophy, University of California San Diego, 1999 M.A., Philosophy, The University of New Mexico, 2005 M.A., French, The University of New Mexico, 2009 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2010 iii Dedication In loving dedication to my family—Chris, Hinano, and Galina. LEVINAS'S SYMBIOTIC PHENOMENOLOGY OF INFINITY AND TOTALITY BY CHRISTIAN C. WOOD ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2010 v LEVINAS'S SYMBIOTIC PHENOMENOLOGY OF INFINITY AND TOTALITY by Christian C. Wood B.A., Philosophy, University of California San Diego, 1999 M.A., Philosophy, The University of New Mexico, 2005 M.A., French, The University of New Mexico, 2009 Ph.D., Philosophy, The University of New Mexico, 2010 ABSTRACT I present a novel interpretation of Emmanuel Levinas's phenomenology wherein I argue that his seemingly antagonistic and exclusive notions of "totality" and "infinity" are best understood, rather, as symbiotic, interdependent, and mutually conditioning. My demarche uses close textual analysis, constant reference to Levinas's (admittedly sparse) comments on philosophical method, and an important return to, and then departure from, Cartesian thought in order to advance my thesis that infinity and totality are essentially intertwined and "symbiotic." As such, they are not essentially opposed in any sort of preferential, evaluative, or eliminative sense, to name some prominent (and misguided) caricatures that regrettably pervade many aspects of Levinas scholarship, whether pro or contra Levinas. I use this insight to show that certain Levinas commentators misunderstand the meaning of, and relationship between, "totality" and "infinity." Lastly, as against those who claim that Levinas essentially has no philosophical argument in such works as Totality and Infinity, I show that Levinas's argumentative rigor and strategy is best understood by way of a carefully vi nuanced and textually documented interpretation of the way that "infinity conditions totality." vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: A CLARIFICATION OF LEVINAS'S OBSCURANTISM .................... 1 CHAPTER 1: LEVINAS'S UNDERSTATED DEBT TO, AND REAPPROPRIATION OF, DESCARTES' THOUGHT ........................................................................................... 6 On the Very Idea Of an Infinite Other ........................................................................ 10 Descartes and the other person reconsidered .............................................................. 22 Levinas's Reappropriation of Descartes ...................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 2: THE CASE FOR A DYNAMIC CONSIDERATION OF LEVINAS'S THOUGHT: A DUAL ASPECT AND SYMBIOTIC READING OF "TOTALITY" AND "INFINITY" ...................................................................................................... 47 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 47 Introduction: The Problem and its Topography .......................................................... 47 The Projected Resolution ............................................................................................ 54 The Tandem and Coequal Importance of Totality and Infinity .................................. 56 Situating the very notions of totality and infinity. .......................................... 56 A Re-Cartesianized reading of Totality, Infinity, and Their Conjunction .................. 64 "Totality" and "Infinity": Passing the Torch from Descartes to Levinas .................... 75 Conversation ............................................................................................................... 77 Teaching and Learning ............................................................................................... 87 Eros and the Caress ..................................................................................................... 90 A Levinasian Defense Against Wolinesque Totality Versus Infinity ......................... 96 A Levinasian Remedy against other Harmful Supplements: Badiou ....................... 112 viii CHAPTER 3: LEVINAS'S CONDITIONS—"A FIELD OF RESEARCH HARDLY GLIMPSED AT…" ................................................................................................... 121 The Problem .............................................................................................................. 121 The Projected Resolution .......................................................................................... 121 The Importance of the Notion of "Infinity Conditioning Totality" .......................... 122 The Problem: Totality and Infinity Allegedly Has No Philosophical Argument ...... 145 The Projected Solution: The Elucidation of Levinas's Conditions ........................... 148 De Boer: Levinas's Other Is Ontologically Foundational ......................................... 158 The Preobjective Other Considered Genealogically, and as a Third Person ............ 164 Badiou Reconsidered ................................................................................................ 186 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 192 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 194 1 Introduction: A Clarification of Levinas's Obscurantism In what follows, I present an interpretation of the thought of Emmanuel Levinas's (1906-1995) that clarifies both his philosophical sources, as well as his phenomenological ambitions within what one calls his "middle period" (1946-67). This period begins with Levinas's reintegration into family, society, and philosophical life after his five-year internment in various German "camps" that were reserved for Jewish French officers during the Second World War.1 This period ends with Levinas's appointment to Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris-Nanterre in 1967-8, during which he developed lectures and publications that would eventually form the core of his later period, including the publication of his second great work, Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence (1974). One could say that his "early" period begins when he receives his License (or, roughly, "Bachelor of Arts" degree) in philosophy in 1927, whereupon he embarked on an intellectual journey that led him to study under Husserl and Heidegger in Freiburg (1928-9), and then to germinate the seeds for some of the 20th century's most interesting thought. His middle period interests me the most because it is the most conversant with the history of Western philosophy and phenomenology, and its exposition is by far clearer than that of either his early or later period. That being said, the writing style of the most notable works from Levinas's middle period (such as Totality and Infinity, which receives the lion's share of my attention) has been characterized as "infuriatingly sloppy," by 1 Levinas was taken prisoner in Dunkirk, June 1940, and the sole reason for which he did not go to a "death" camp for Jews is the fact that he was an officer in the French army, and Jewish officers were spared at least the most severe of "treatment" by their Nazi warders. As Solomon Malka notes in his wonderful biography, Emmanuel Levinas: His Life and His Legacy, Levinas was one of "1, 600, 000 French POWs (4 percent of the [French] population) in Germany spread out over more than 60 stalags and 20 oflags throughout the country" (67). 2 critical commentators such as Dermot Moran.2 B.C. Hutchens, one of Levinas's staunchest supporters, even goes so far as to say, quite unapologetically, that "Levinas delights in paradox and contradiction" in such works as Totality and Infinity.3 The general take on the clarity of Levinas's philosophical prose is perhaps most succinctly stated by Simon Critchley, who simply notes that "the obscurity of Levinas's prose troubles many of his readers."4 I have struggled with this admittedly "sloppy" and "obscure" prose for over seven years, and it is undeniable, for instance, that Levinas capitalizes terms inconsistently, that he rarely defines important technical notions, and that his language can oftentimes seem paradoxical and contradictory. This same prose, from a different perspective, however, is at once marvelously rich in description, suggestion, and, from the right vantage point, thoroughly replete with
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