Abstract
The relation between the abyss of death and the human identity is constitutive for the thought of the dialogical thinkers Rosenzweig and Levinas. For Rosenzweig, the Nothing is the end point of Kantian thinking. Death, as the existential experience of this nothingness, was the reality of everyman during the violent decades at the turn of the century. Rosenzweig took this nothingness as the starting point for rethinking and safeguarding human identity. Human identity is a dam against nothingness. But human identity is also open to alterity. In his early texts, Levinas makes a similar move. The there is is the starting point of human identity. Levinas develops a dialectical phenomenology starting from death. Human identity is interpreted as hypostasis. But in Totalite et Infi ni, an important shift takes place. The starting point is now found in human identity as desire. The there is comes to the centre as the flip side of the elementale and human identity is interpreted as separation. Keywords: Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, Levinas, Totality and Infi nity, human identity, nothingness, there is, hypostasis, separation, Kant, Nietzsche, Meinecke, Schelling. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/zz.2017.15
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.