Morceau de résistance : l'altrimenti che essere come risemantizzazione dell'ontologia in Emmanuel Lévinas

The expression otherwise than being, used by Lévinas as the title of one of his most important works, does not suggest so much an evasion from ontology or its abandonment in favour of ethics, but rather a renaming of ontology in thecontext of a first philosophy with strong moral overtones. This renaming, according to the author, is not a marginal or accessory element in Lévinas' philosophical strategy; instead, it is indispensable to avoid a sort of moral reopening of an individualistic metaphysics and, moreover, one accentuating the theme ofresponsibility. The author comparatively examines Lévinas' early writings – including some manuscripts published only recently – and some passages of Other - wise than Being or Beyond the Essence, particularly as regards the themes of word,voice, and breath, and the disturbing traits of ‘there is', of the being in general.

This examination highlights a common discourse where being is detached from the perturbing tangle and potentially dissolving background of the existent to acquire the role of weaving together and modulating the relational asymmetry that causes the Same and the Other to become entangled [Publisher's text]