The Phenomenology -  Emmanuel Levinas' Face of the Other

• Concept of Face-to-Face Relation:

  · Ethically, people are responsible to one another in face-to-face encounter.

  · The human face "orders and ordains" us, calling the subject "giving and serving" the Other.
• Primacy of Ethics in Lévinas' Philosophy:

  · "Ethics is the first philosophy" for Lévinas.

  · Encounter of the Other through the face reveals a certain poverty, forbidding reduction to Sameness and installing responsibility for the Other in the Self.
• Comparison with Martin Buber's "I and Thou" Relation:

  · Similarities between Lévinas' face-to-face encounter and Buber's "I and Thou" relation.

  · Influence on Jacques Derrida's ethical writings, though some post-structuralist thinkers disagree with this alignment.

   
• Asymmetry in Lévinas' Ethics:

  · Lévinas introduces an asymmetrical aspect to the relation with the Other.

  · The face of the other gives itself priority to the self, demanding "thou shalt not kill me" before any reaction or assertion of freedom.

   
• God in Lévinas' Philosophy:

  · God refers to the infinite Other, not a conceptual God of philosophy but the God of traditional belief and scripture.

  · The face traces "where God passes."
• Significance of the Face:

  · The face, in its nudity and defenselessness, signifies "Do not kill me."

  · Defenseless nudity is a passive resistance to the desire that is the freedom of the self.

  · The face of the other is often exemplified as a "widow, orphan, or stranger."

   
• Ethics vs. Morality in Face-to-Face Encounter:

  · Lévinas distinguishes ethics from morality.

  · Ethics is primary in the face-to-face situation, whereas morality arises later as a set of rules in a social situation involving more than two people.
• Meontology:

  · Lévinas refers to his ethical relation as meontology, affirming a meaning beyond Being.

  · It transcends ontology and is a mode of non-Being, emphasizing a dimension beyond mere existence.
• 21st century