BEYOND PROXIMITY AND SUBSTITUTION: LEVINAS ON TRANSCENDENCE
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Abstract
Martin Heidegger’s philosophy is a form of an ontotheology
that reduces the encounter with ‘the Other’ into a
metaphysical abstraction. For this reason his idea of Being
tends to be morally naïve and oblivious to the reality of
suffering. For Emmanuel Levinas develops a philosophy
which challenges this where the relation between the
human person and ‘the Other’ is asymmetrical. This not
only challenges Heidegger’s ontology but also rectifies the
tendency toward egocentrism of Western philosophy in
general. This paper argues that Levinas’ idea ‘the other’ is a
manifestation of the Divine. Levinas is saying that without
this idea of the divine or God, there can be no way out of
the violence in human history. The traces of the Divine can
be found in the unique experiences of transcendence, such
as unconditional love.
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