W kręgu (własnych) słów Emanuela Lévinasa. Rozmowa na temat ludzkiej egzystencji

Abstract

The article, as declared by the author in the introduction, aims at entering into a dialogue with the philosophical legacy of Emmanuel Levinas, recognizing the findings of the Jewish philosopher on such concepts as the substance of “I”, freedom, responsibility, the ethical dimension of a meeting with the Other, the role of transcendence in the world, but also relationships of ethics and love. Levinas, whose development of ideas was influenced by various cultural traditions, combines in his philosophical concept Heidegger’s ontology, Husserl’s phenomenology, the Cartesian concept of infinity, the tradition of Talmudic writings and biblical traditions. By making use of various traditions, philosophical concepts and principles of existential phenomenology, Levinas creates a new description of the human and his/her existence, based primarily on the analysis of the status of “I”. The essence of Levinas’s “I”, according to the author of the article, is based on relatedness, it is determined by the multiplicity of concepts and does not have a final definition, but is formed through relationships with the Other. The article also discusses the role of time in Levinas’ philosophy, understood as diachrony, which introduces the “I” into the space of metaphysics and the experience of God.