Abstract

This chapter shows the implications of Levinas's understanding of futurity for phenomenology as a discipline. Initially, Levinas's notion of the reversal of Sinngebung suggests that even absolute consciousness (in Husserl's sense) is constituted. This fact does not merely add to Husserl's understanding of constitution, but rather significantly alters it, and his understanding of phenomenology itself, insofar as it reveals that every layer of constituting consciousness itself has a passive/constituted moment. This chapter highlights the ways in which being-constituted confirms some elements of Husserl's analyses while challenging and reinterpreting other elements. Finally, it evaluates how this notion of "being-constituted" allows us to explain more deeply the promissory nature of anticipation, and its relation to intentionality and the "ethical" nature of phenomenology.

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