Levinas and the Problem of the Other. “Otherwise than Being” Questioned

Abstract

Jacques Derrida’s text Violence and Metaphysics is a decisive event not only in disseminating Levinas’ thought to the general public, but also in addressing the most important criticism Levinas experienced during his lifetime. It signals the changes in the axes and inflections that mark the passage from Totalité et infini to Autrement qu’être, his second great work. Autrement qu’être can therefore be read as Levinas’ effort to overcome the criticisms imposed by Jacques Derrida. Henceforth, Levinas will have to justify a more acute difference between the other and being than that of being and entity. But, in doing so, does this radicalization of the philosophy of the otherness not imply denying in turn the person of the other? It is precisely this that needs to be clarified.