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Emmanuel Levinas Ethics “War does not manifest exteriority and the other as other; it destroys the identity of the same” pp 21 Totality and inifinity. |
Levinas
counterpoises totality to infiinity. Totality reveals the objectivity of war as
the condition of being.
“The visage
of being that shows itself in war is fixed in the concept of totality, which
dominates Western philosophyu. Individuals are reduced to being bearers of
forces that command them unbeknown to themselves. The meaning of indiivudals
(invisibleoutsde of this totality) is derved from the totality. The unicity of
each preen is incessantly sacrificed to a future appealed to to bring forth its
objective being” (22)
Infinity is
more primoridal and foundational than totality, although infinity is
experienced within this or that totality. Totality is linked to eschatrology,
the ever going beyond on which the objective totality can be known through what
it is to become to be. This eschatological impulse, loosely eluded to a
political form, is close to the presence of infinity. Infinity is the premise
of both thought and action, it conditions them both.
Infinity
is a metaphysical drive, a desire for the outside, not so that it can be
internatlised, for it cannot; it is the desire for something unsatisfiable.
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