Emmanuel Levinas and the Politics of Non-Violence
© 2014
French philosopher and Talmudic commentator Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) has received considerable attention for his influence on philosophical and religious thought. In this book, Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani provides the first examination of the applicability of Emmanuel Levinas’ work to social and political movements. Investigating his ethics of responsibility and his critique of the Western liberal imagination, Tahmasebi-Birgani advances the moral, political, and philosophical debates on the radical implications of Levinas’ work.
Emmanuel Levinas and the Politics of Non-Violence is the first book to closely consider the affinity between Levinas’ ethical vision and Mohandas Gandhi’s radical yet non-violent political struggle. Situating Levinas’ insights within a transnational, transcontinental, and global framework, Tahmasebi-Birgani highlights Levinas’ continued relevance in an age in which violence is so often resorted to in the name of “justice” and “freedom.”
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 216 pages
- Dimensions: 6.3in x 0.8in x 9.3in
-
Reviews
“Emmanuel Levinas and the Politics of Non-Violence is valuable in that it adds to a still limited amount of published work that tackles head on one of the greatest problems in Levinasian studies: the relation of face-to-face ethics to politics. The author develops an original argument that links Levinas’ concept of man’s ‘substitution’ and gratuitously infinite responsibility for his neighbour’s suffering to a politics of ‘justice’ via the idea of ‘non-violent ethico-political praxis.’”
Marinos Diamantides, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London -
Author Information
Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani is a Women and Gender Studies Assistant Professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. -
Table of contents
List of Abbreviations
Introduction. Ethical Subject and Political Praxis: A Theoretical Background
Chapter I. Levinas’ Ethicopolitics: Beyond the Western Liberal Tradition
i. Levinas and the Political: General Discussion
ii. An Alternative Reading of Ethics and Politics in Levinas
iii. The Problem of the Third and Justice in Levinas: The Third and Justice: Two Conceptions of Justice in Levinas; Me, the Other, the Third and (In)Justice: Ethical Justice and Liberatory Political Praxis
iv. Levinas and Liberalism: Levinas and the Liberal Conception of the Individual; Levinas and the Liberal Peace; Levinas and the Liberal Economic Arrangement
v. Conclusion
Chapter II. Radical Passivity, the Face, and the Social Demand of Justice
i. Oneself: Subject as Radical Passivity of the Sensible: Maternity as a Praxis Grounded in Radical Passivity
ii. The Irreducible Other: The Face As A Social Demand for Justice
iii. Self and the Other: Peace With the Other As Being Responsible for the Other’s Suffering and Death
iv. Conclusion
Chapter III. Substituting Praxis and Political Liberation
i. Substitution in Radical Passivity
ii. Substituting Praxis as a Liberatory Struggle
iii. The Contours of Substituting Praxis: Substituting Praxis: Liberation in Pre-Intentional Proximity; Substituting Praxis: Liberation and Freedom; Substituting Praxis: Liberation and the Spirit of Sincerity and Youth; Substituting Praxis: Liberation and (Non)Violence — The Third as Persecutor
iv. Conclusion
Chapter IV. Levinas and Gandhi: Liberatory Praxis as Fear for the Other
i. Levinas and Gandhi: Can There Be A Dialogue?
ii. Parallels between Levinas and Gandhi: The Subject in Levinas and Gandhi; Gandhian Selfless Service and Levinasian Irreplaceable Responsibility
iii. Entry Into Non-Violence Through Eschatology
iv. Gandhi: Non-Violent Revolt and Eschatological Peace
v. Levinas: The Event of Speech and Eschatological Peace: Ethical Love as the Principle of the Social and the Political; Political Opponent as Interlocutor
vi. Gandhi: Political Enemy as Interlocutor: Peaceful Struggle as Speech
vii. Liberation as Substitution: Fearing for the Other Instead of Fearing from the Other
vii. Conclusion
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-
Subjects and Courses
