Holte / Wyller / Streib Meaning and Melancholy in the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-3-647-60452-7
Verlag: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band Band 018, 192 Seiten

Reihe: Research in Contemporary Religion

Although considered as one of the 20th century most central ethical thinkers, Emmanuel Levinas claimed that his task was not to construct an ethics, but to seek the meaning of the ethical. This claim is the point of departure of the present study, which asks how ethics could be regarded as meaningful at all in light of the crisis of meaning that according to Levinas is inherent to being.Ethical meaning is for Levinas sought “otherwise than being or beyond essence” in terms of a radical responsibility for the Other. At the same time, it is questionable whether the ethical may be said to represent an overcoming of the crisis of meaning. This is visible in Levinas’ rather harsh descriptions of the ethical situation, involving not only the meaningless, but also feelings like melancholy, trauma, and shame.As the study shows, such feelings can for Levinas not be seen apart from their religious significance, although Levinas does not rely on conventional theology, but rather understands transcendence in a deeply sensible manner. This is shown in the radical passivity and self-emptying – to the point of messianism – of the responsible subject, which is the only way the meaning of the ethical may be rescued.The study also discusses how the utopian aspect of such a position is problematic in practical life, and why Levinas therefore admits the need for the ethical to be betrayed in ontology, which also implies an involvement with aesthetics as “ontological par excellence.”

Autoren/Hrsg.

Holte, Stine

Wyller, Trygve

Streib, Heinz

Pezzoli-Olgiati, Daria

Heimbrock, Hans-Günter

Weitere Mitwirkende

Wyller, Trygve

Streib, Heinz

Pezzoli-Olgiati, Daria

Heimbrock, Hans-Günter

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Cover
;1
2;Title Page;4
3;Copyright;5
4;Table of Contents;6
5;Body;8
6;Acknowledgements;8
7;List of abbreviations;10
8;Introduction;12
9;Part 1: The Light And Darkness Of Phenomenological Meaning ;20
10;1.1. The meaning of the ethical;22
10.1;Beyond phenomenological meaning;22
10.2;Ethical meaning as an epiphany of the face;25
10.3;Ethical meaning as a questioning of the self;30
11;1.2. Ontology and the meaninglessness of being; darkness;34
11.1;Il y a and the enchainment to being;34
11.2;Shame and subjectivity;39
12;1.3. Intentional meaning; light;43
12.1;Intentionality as sincerity;43
12.2;The violence of light: Derrida's reading;46
12.3;Intentional meaning and temporality;52
12.4;Husserl and the problem of representation;54
12.5;Heidegger and the problem of imagination;58
13;1.4. Esthetics between darkness and light;64
13.1;Esthetics and ethics;64
13.2;The exoticism of art as the involvement with darkness;69
13.3;The problematic consolation of beauty;73
13.4;The value of art;77
14;1.5. Transcendence and the question of language;80
14.1;The differences between Levinas' two main works;80
14.2;Ontology as the amphibology of being and beings;83
14.3;Transcendence as reduction to pure Saying;88
15;Part 2: Transcendence And Sensibility;94
16;2.1. Sensibility and the anarchy of the self;96
16.1;Sensibility as enjoyment;96
16.2;Ethicized sensibility;101
16.3;The anarchy of the singular self;105
17;2.2. Responsibility and the traumatized self;112
17.1;Substitution and the excess of responsibility;112
17.2;The critique of pathology;118
17.3;Traumatism and psychoanalysis;121
17.4;Traumatism between transcendence and il y a;128
17.5;The problem of melancholy;134
18;2.3. The religious dimension of sensible transcendence;141
18.1;Religion and phenomenology;141
18.2;Holiness and separation;145
18.3;Judaism as a religion for adults;150
18.4;Religious freedom and melancholy;156
18.5;The intrigue of God;162
18.6;The transcendence of subjectivity – and the return to society;167
18.7;Sincerity and ethical questioning of meaning;173
19;Conclusion;178
20;Bibliography;184
21;Index;189

Über Autor(innen)

Wyller, Trygve
Dr. theol. Trygve Wyller ist Professor für Praktische Theologie/Religionspädagogik an der Universität Oslo.

Streib, Heinz
Dr. theol. Heinz Streib ist Professor für Praktische Theologie, Religionspädagogik, Religionspsychologie und Biographische Religionsforschung an der Universität Bielefeld.

Pezzoli-Olgiati, Daria
Prof. Dr. Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati leitet das Zentrum für Religion, Wirtschaft und Politik (ZRWP) der Universitäten Basel, Lausanne, Luzern und Zürich.

Heimbrock, Hans-Günter
Dr. theol. Hans-Günter Heimbrock ist Professor für Praktische Theologie am Fachbereich Ev. Theologie der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a. M.