Abstract

In his major work, Totality and Infinity, Emmanuel Levinas defines ethics as follows: 'We name this calling into question of my spontaneity by the presence of the Other ethics.' It is this understanding of ethics that is behind the very often misunderstood and criticized work of Jacques Derrida. Today, philosophers are speaking of an 'ethical turn' in Derrida's thinking. This dissertation maintains that it is undeniable that deconstruction takes place in all its manifestations ethically. In Limited Inc., Derrida characterizes the practice of deconstruction as 'the effort to take limitless context into account. It is the practice of respecting alterity.' ;The introduction to this dissertation opens with a look at Derrida's essay, 'Before the Law,' named after Franz Kafka's famous parable, which is the story of a man who spends his life before the door to the law---a door which was meant only for him. Derrida argues that the particularity of the door represents the contextual and idiomatic nature of the expression of law. For Levinas, the commandment 'thou shalt not kill,' is inscribed in each individual human face. ;Part 1 begins with an exploration of the significant influences of Judaism and the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl on Levinas's original thinking. Levinas's description of the move from a primordial experience of Being , through our naive and spontaneous existence, to the brink of ethics, located in our suffering, is traced. Levinas's central contention that the face expresses a nonviolent or 'moral force,' is interrogated. ;Part 2 moves to a general discussion of Totality and Infinity, and addresses the ethical nature of our relationship with the other. Feminist critiques of Levinas's allegedly presuppositionless ethics are brought into play. ;Part 3 concerns the question of justice, which is introduced into the ethical relationship by the presence of a third party. The problems of undecidability and action, sacrifice, guilt, and punishment, are addressed. Also, Derrida's recent elaborations on the subject of deconstruction and the gift, in which Levinas's influence is particularly apparent, are reviewed