Reading Levinas/Reading Talmud: An Introduction

The General Philosophy

THE GENERAL PHILOSOPHY Ifwe recognize that Levinas's philosophy is grounded in his opposition to totalitarianism and its philosophic partner, totality, we discover that what we thought was beyond the comprehension of the average person , a daunting program of philosophy, is actually comprehensible. Levinas begins his work with an insight drawn from Plato's Republic: that there is a "Good beyond Being," that is, that ethical behavior has as its source something outside or beyond the limits of the world whose existence we can logically account for in philosophy. However, unlike Plato, Levinas deliberately cultivates complexity in his own language to escape the confinement inherent in the language of philosophy itself, which, for Levinas, is that of ontology, epistemology, science. In this abstract language the reality of Plato's Good beyond Being is inexpressible , ineffable. Therefore, Levinas wants to find a new language not only to express the inexpressible, but to express it in a philosophically compelling fashion. To accomplish this ambitious goal, he invents his own language, one that is complex, filled with newly coined words and redefinitions of familiar words. Further, his style-repetitive, dense, nearly poetic, what Jacques Derrida has described as lithe action of waves against the shore" Oacques Derrida, "Violence," p. 312, n. 3, quoted in FOR, p. 180)-contributes to our difficulty, both real and perceived , in deciphering his ideas. Thus, we are entangled in Levinas's own paradox: to introduce his new way of thinking into Western philosophy is difficult precisely because that discourse resists his insight. Yet, once we penetrate his special language, we discover to our astonishment that the insight is no more 7 8 'lHEORY-A LEvrNASIAN DICTIONARY complicated than a common-sense reading of experience. It is certainly not beyond the ken of ordinary people. In this regard it may be helpful to compare Levinas's work to Franz Rosenzweig's Understanding the Sick and the Healthy. Written at his publisher's request as a more popular version of his almost impenetrable book, The Star ofRedemption, this book is a parable telling the story of a patient, "Sick Reason," who is cured by being increasingly exposed to the world of real experience. Rosenzweig decided at the last moment not to allow publication of the book (which was finally published by the Noonday Press in 1954, translated by Nahum Glatzer). The book demonstrates that the density of Rosenzweig's philosophical language does not preclude our understanding his thought. I believe that this is true of Emmanuel Levinas's work as well. Although I do not propose to write such a parable for Emmanuel Levinas, I do believe that we can appreciate his work if we understand that what he is describing is a reality. According to Levinas, experience precedes thought. This founding experience preceding all others is the experience of the other, that is, of other people outside ourselves. Our relationship to the other precedes thought, precedes our thought of ourselves , precedes our very idea of self. In fact, our sense of self arises from our relationship to another. We come into being because of another who, unbidden and inscrutable, tends to us. We are fundamentally beholden to this other person; regardless of our own will we are chosen by this indebtedness, "elected," as it were. We are created by another's love and create ourselves by accepting the burden of this love and its obligations . In short, what philosophers call ethics (what should be) not only precedes ontology (what is) but makes it possible. Before philosophy, there is responsibility. This achievement of what Richard Cohen calls lIan original, profound and comprehensive philosophy, a dialogical ethics," is, then, not nearly as mysterious as some claim. However, finding an appropriate philosophic language in which to translate this dialogical ethics is difficult . Yet so important and enlightening is the language that Levinas creates that it behooves all of us who live in a world created by Western philosophy to make the effort to understand it. I use the word "translate " deliberately, for Levinas's program should be understood as one of translation-in fact, of double translation. His insistence that we found all philosophy on ethical responsibility is, in effect, a translation of Jewish wisdom into the philosophic language of the West-that is, Greek thought. Conversely, his readings ofTalmud constitute a transla- THE GENERAL PHILOSOPHY 9 tion of Greek modes of thought into the foundational language of Judaism , for...