dissertation on levinas' philosophy
GENERAL INTRODUCTION Ours is an anthropocentric world where each individual is went upon attaining self realisation in himself or herself. He or she has scant respect for others. Pragmatism has become the order of the day. In short man has become inordinately selfish, considering society a mere means to gratify himself/ herself. This malady of the modern society has been denounced by eminent philosophers like Kant, F. H. Bradley etc. Their sole intention was to lay a foundation for ethics. But no rational ethical system, however efficient has so far ensured peace and happiness in the world. We are badly in need of something else. It is hear that we see the relevance of Emmanuel Levinas. He has expounded the concept that it is the face of the other, not any legal system that can affect my transcendence to the infinite. Levinas proposed form of ethics becomes more validated philosophy of our time, is highly respected and valued. According to Levinas’ ethics proceeds any moment of rationalization. Levinas redefined the uncompromising ethical relationship with the Other as a remedial measure to all the forms of existing in justice and crime. He would also say that human beings are so limitlessly valued that no form of crime or injustice be done to them. Levinas’ philosophy is deeply rooted in ethics. If ethics means rationalist self –legislation and freedom, the calculation of happiness, or the cultivation of virtues, the Levinas’ philosophy is not an ethics. Levinas claimed that he was developing a ‘first philosophy’. The first philosophy is neither metaphysics nor traditional logic; however it is an interpretive, phenomenological description of the raise and reception of the face- to-face encounter. Levinas’ philosophical enterprise can be called as constructivist. He proposes phenomenological description and hermeneutics of lived experience in the world. He lays bare levels of experience described neither by Husserl nor by Heidegger. Levinas is
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