Abstract:
In this paper I would like to present the work of Emmanuel Levinas and
at the same time provide some clarity on the relation between his
philosophy and Jewish thought. After a brief biographical and intellectual
orientation, the theme of history and eschatology in Levinas’s work will
be explored as guiding theme of his thought. To him, history is for the
powerful flow of being that undermines ethical subjectivity; eschatology
refers to the interruption of history by its other: ethics. In this exposition,
attention will be given to his relationship with Rosenweig and Buber. An
analysis of the central notion of ethics as infinite responsibility to the
other as well as the political thrust of it, namely the search for justice for
the other as brother, will be presented as Levinas’s philosophical
interpretation of eschatology. The question of justice spontaneously leads
us to a twin question: to whom am I responsible? Who is Israel? A
tension between universal ethical agency and particularistic Jewish
identity will be explored. From the preceding discussion conclusions will
be drawn relevant to the particularity of Israel and the Jewish religious
literature and their place in Levinas’s philosophy of history and
eschatology. This will allow for a suggestion on how to understand the
relation between the Greek and Jewish elements of Levinas’s work.
