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Language, Philosophy and Judaism in the Work of Emmanuel Levinas and Franz Rosenzweig

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Language, Philosophy and Judaism in the Work of Emmanuel Levinas and Franz Rosenzweig Language, Philosophy and Judaism in the Work of Emmanuel Levinas and Franz Rosenzweig Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Würde eines Doktors der Philosophie an der Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg im Fach Jüdische Philosophie und Geistesgeschichte vorgelegt von Silvia Richter Heidelberg, Mai 2011 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Ephraim Meir Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Martin Gessmann “Tout parler est énigme.”1 1 Levinas, Emmanuel, “Phenomenon and Enigma”, in: Collected Philosophical Papers, pp. 61-73, p. 69/“Énigme et Phénomène”, in: En découvrant l‟existence avec Husserl et Heidegger, pp. 283-302, p. 296. 2 Table of contents Introduction – The face and the beginning of language............................................................10 Part I – Judaism Chapter I Emmanuel Levinas and Franz Rosenzweig on Judaism and philosophy...............................19 1. Levinas‟s early philosophical reflections on being and death in light of his Carnets de captivité.............................................................................................20 2. a) “The mysterious voices of the blood” Ŕ the redemption of time and the presence of Jewish existence………….……………………………....……..…33 b) “Language is yet more than „blood‟…” Ŕ from a „community of blood„ [Blutsgemeinschaft] to a „community of language‟ [Sprachgemeinschaft]…..….....46 3. a) A new aspect of ontology: Judaism as a “category of being”...................................54 b) Levinas‟s “awakening of consciousness” as a new mode of being Ŕ at the intersection of Judaism, being and language….…………..………......…………....68 4. Between Judaism and philosophy Ŕ Rosenzweig‟s influence on Levinas‟s thinking……...………………..…………....................................................…...…..80 3 Part II – Philosophy Chapter II Time and Language 1. Language, time and death in Levinas and Rosenzweig…………..….............……86 a) “When the world disappears…” Ŕ night, death, and the discovery of the there is (il y a)…………………………………………….……..………..………..89 b) Death Ŕ Eros Ŕ Creation and the role of language…………..……..…….…………99 2. a) Language and eschatology in the work of Levinas………….……….…..………113 b) “In the heart of a chiasmus” Ŕ Jacques Derrida‟s critique of language in Levinas‟s work and the problem of narrativity………………………..…..……..116 3. a) The notion of an „ethical language‟ in Levinas‟s thought Ŕ breathing, voice and the saying of “things that can‟t be said”..........................................................120 b) Ethics of representation: language, poetry and narrativity......................................125 Excursus: At the crossroads of music, poetry and ethics Ŕ poethics in the thought of Levinas and John Cage………………………………………..…………….....129 Part III – Language Chapter III Language and Speech-Thinking 1. On “needing the other and [...] taking time seriously” Ŕ Rosenzweig‟s concept of speech-thinking (Sprachdenken) and Levinas‟s notion of language......................139 2. Rosenzweig‟s concept of a “messianic epistemology” and his notion of truth..........152 3. “Light does not talk; it shines.” Ŕ the vision of the face and the experience of truth……………….…………..……………..……………………..………….……160 4 Chapter IV The phenomenon of the voice in Rosenzweig and Levinas 1. Presence through voice Ŕ towards a new definition of Levinas‟s conception of subjectivity.........................................................................................................178 2. Revelation, language and the “voice of love” in Rosenzweig‟s Star of Redemption, with a view to Levinas a) The role of love in The Star of Redemption and its connection to language..........187 b) Love and the silent Self of Creation, or: how to become “a soul that speaks”......194 c) “Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen…” Ŕ language as the event of Revelation: the voice of love.....................................................................................................204 3. a) The voice of the commandment (mitzvah) in Mendelssohn‟s Jerusalem, with a view to Rosenzweig and Levinas‟s lectures on “The Written and The Oral” and “Word and Silence”.......................................................................213 b) Some aspects on the role of the voice in the Buber-Rosenzweig Bible translation and Levinas‟s notions of the Saying and the Said...............................234 4. a) Transmitting the fire Ŕ the renewal of tradition through the living speech...........251 b) Walking on the moon Ŕ on the significance of talking face-to-face in politics… 254 Conclusions – Levinas and Rosenzweig: Impulses for an ethical approach to postmodern philosophy................................................258 Abbreviations and Bibliography………………………..…………………..……………...…266 Table of figures…………………………………………………………………..………..…...293 Acknowledgments…..…………………………………………..………………….……...…...294 Declaration according to § 6 of the Ph.D. regulations of the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg……………………………………………………………………..……...295 Summary of the thesis in German according to § 7, subsection 2, of the Ph.D. regulations of the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg…………………..….…….296 5 für meine Eltern – Emma und Günter Richter & für Augusto 6 Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) 7 Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) 8 Alexej Jawlensky, “The word”, 1933 9 Introduction – The face and the beginning of language I think that the beginning of language is in the face. In a certain way, in its silence, it calls you.2 In his abstract painting “The Word” (1933), reproduced on the previous page, the Russian painter Alexej Jawlensky represented a colorful face, looking frontally toward the observer.3 The face is an important topic of the art of Jawlensky, who had been since his youth deeply impressed by the icon paintings of his home country. Jawlensky focused on the human face, especially in his later work: “A face is not just a face for me but the whole cosmos,” he said; “In the face the whole cosmos reveals itself.”4 By elaborating this subject through endlessly different variations, the artist wanted to capture the transcendence of the face through the colors of his paintings. He wanted to express something that lies deeper than what eyes can see and, thus, transcends visibility: he wanted to paint the invisible. For Jawlensky, art is longing for God [“Kunst ist eine Sehnsucht zu Gott.”] and a kind of “worship” [“Gottesdienst”]. His paintings are “prayers with colors”,5 as he said. The painting reproduced here takes this theme further by exploring the notion of the “word” and representing it through a face Ŕ however, it is a face that can hardly be recognized as such, being reduced to some lines and geometrical figures. In fact, this symphony of colors evokes feelings, sensations, and an état d‟âme which go beyond what is represented.6 Thus, the represented head is a sort of a metaphysical head that reveals the “face” of “the word”. The connection between the “face” and the “word” lies at the center of the thought of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995). As he points out in his article “Signature” in Difficult Freedom, 2 Levinas, Emmanuel, “The Paradox of Morality: an Interview with Emmanuel Levinas”, conducted by Tamra Wright, Peter Hughes and Alison Ainley, in: The Provocation of Levinas. Rethinking the Other, ed. by Robert Bernasconi and David Wood, pp. 168-180, p. 169. 3 For detailed picture credits regarding the reproduced images see Table of Figures. For Jawlensky‟s painting “The Word” see especially: Alexej von Jawlensky. Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Volume Two, 1914-1933, ed. by Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky, p. 506. 4 Weiler, Clemens, Alexej Jawlensky. Köpfe, Gesichte, Meditationen, see illustration no. 18: “Ein Gesicht ist für mich nicht ein Gesicht, sondern der ganze Kosmos. Im Gesicht offenbart sich der ganze Kosmos.” 5 Ibid., the citations can be found, after p. 26, at illustration no. 12 and no. 22, and at p. 99. 6 On the topic of “the spiritual in art”, revelation and modern Jewish thought, see Braiterman, Zachary, The Shape of Revelation. Aesthetics and Modern Jewish Thought. Braiterman focuses on the art and art theories of Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Franz Marc (painters whose works are near to Jawlensky) and puts them in dialogue with the works of Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber. 10 “[t]he expressing of the face is language.”7 In Levinas‟s view it is precisely through the face that language as such becomes possible. It is the face that gives human beings the possibility of having a language and of being able to speak, as Levinas underlines in his interview with Philippe Nemo: “The face speaks. It is in this that it renders possible and begins all discourse.”8 So, in a certain way, Jawlensky‟s painting provides a visualization of the link between word and face that characterizes Levinas‟s thought. This little detour to modern art allows us to introduce the concept of the face, by situating it in a broader artistic context which emphasizes the connection between face, language and transcendence. In fact, the link between art and the concept of the face goes even further, as formulated by Levinas: “Perhaps art seeks to give a face to things, and in this its greatness and its deceit simultaneously reside.”9 According to Levinas, the face cannot be seen as such. It is beyond representation and cannot be grasped through perception. The face is beyond visibility which makes it at first sight difficult to understand this important notion in Levinas‟s work. Yet in this beyond of visibility lies the crucial
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