Overcoming Relativism? Levinas's Return to Platonism

Emmanuel Levinas's concept of “the face of the Other” involves an ethical mandate that is presumably transcultural or, in his terms, “precultural.” His essay “Meaning and Sense” provides his most explicit defense of the idea that the face has a meaning that is not culturally relative, though it...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Blum, Peter C. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
En cours de chargement...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Wiley-Blackwell 2000
Dans: Journal of religious ethics
Année: 2000, Volume: 28, Numéro: 1, Pages: 91-117
Sujets non-standardisés:B Phenomenology
B Relativism
B Absolute
B Meaning
B Culture
B Other
Accès en ligne: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Édition parallèle:Non-électronique
Description
Résumé:Emmanuel Levinas's concept of “the face of the Other” involves an ethical mandate that is presumably transcultural or, in his terms, “precultural.” His essay “Meaning and Sense” provides his most explicit defense of the idea that the face has a meaning that is not culturally relative, though it is always encountered within some particular culture. Levinas identifies his position there as a “return to Platonism.” Through a careful reading of that essay, exploring Levinas's use of religious terminology and the (some-times implicit) relationships of the essay to the work of other phenomenologists and of Saussure, the author seeks to clarify (1) what Levinas retains and what he rejects in returning to Platonism “in a new way,” (2) the sense in which this return constitutes an “overcoming” of relativism, and (3) the nature of the phenomenological warrant that he offers for his position.
ISSN:1467-9795
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/0384-9694.00037