ABSTRACT
Interpreters of Emmanuel Levinas often note the central role he gives to language in his account of ethical discourse. Levinas himself puts the matter quite strongly, claiming, for example, that ‘[a]bsolute difference … is established only by language’. This aspect of Levinas’s thought has seemed to many readers to rule out the possibility of ethical relations with non-human animals. My aim in this article is to present an alternative reading of Levinas that avoids this implication. I argue that the core emphasis of Levinas’s account lies not on language, but on our capacity to learn from the other. We do this through what I term the second look: we respect [re-specere] the other by letting her teach us, by giving her our undivided attention, by looking at her again. Learning from the other, whether through language or otherwise, creates an ethical conversation that ‘puts in common a world hitherto mine’.
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this article was presented as a faculty seminar in the Philosophy Department at the University of Queensland in March 2020. I am grateful to everyone who participated in the discussion. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
Emmanuel Levinas (1969) Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, Alphonso Lingis trans, Duquesne University Press. Emmanuel Levinas (1998) Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, Alphonso Lingis trans, Duquesne University Press. Emmanuel Levinas (2006) Entre Nous: Thinking-of-the-Other, Michael B Smith and Barbara Harshav trans, Continuum. John Llewelyn (1991) ‘Am I Obsessed by Bobby? (Humanism of the Other Animal)’ in The Middle Voice of Ecological Conscience, St Martin’s Press. David Clark (1997) ‘On Being “The Last Kantian in Nazi Germany”: Dwelling with Animals After Levinas’ in Jennifer Ham and Matthew Senior (eds) Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History, Routledge. Jacques Derrida (2008) The Animal that Therefore I Am, David Wills trans, Fordham University Press. Bob Plant (2011) ‘Welcoming Dogs: Levinas and “the Animal” Question’ 3 Philosophy and Social Criticism 49. doi: 10.1177/0191453710384361 Peter Atterton (2011) ‘Levinas and Our Moral Responsibility Toward Other Animals’ 54 Inquiry 633. doi: 10.1080/0020174X.2011.628186 Peter Atterton and Tamra Wright (2019) ‘Editors’ Introduction’ in Peter Atterton and Tamra Wright (eds) Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question, State University of New York Press. Diane Perpich (2008) The Ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, Stanford University Press. Diane Perpich (2008) The Ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, Stanford University Press. Diane Perpich (2008) The Ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, Stanford University Press. Matthew Calarco (2010) ‘Faced by Animals’ in Peter Atterton and Matthew Calarco (eds) Radicalizing Levinas, State University of New York Press. Matthew Calarco (2019) ‘Ecce Animot: Levinas, Derrida, and the Other Animal’ in Peter Atterton and Tamra Wright (eds) Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question, State University of New York Press. Matthew Calarco (2019) ‘Ecce Animot: Levinas, Derrida, and the Other Animal’ in Peter Atterton and Tamra Wright (eds) Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question, State University of New York Press. Alphonso Lingis (2019) ‘Levinas and the Other Animals: Phenomenological Analysis of Obligations’ in Peter Atterton and Tamra Wright (eds) Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question, State University of New York Press. Alphonso Lingis (2019) ‘Levinas and the Other Animals: Phenomenological Analysis of Obligations’ in Peter Atterton and Tamra Wright (eds) Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question, State University of New York Press. Jean-François Lyotard (1988) The Differend: Phrases in Dispute, Georges Van Den Abbeele trans, University of Minnesota Press. Jonathan Crowe (2011) ‘Levinas on Shared Ethical Judgments’ 42(3) Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 233. doi: 10.1080/00071773.2011.11006745 Jonathan Crowe and Constance Youngwon Lee (2015) ‘Law as Memory’ 26 Law and Critique 251. doi: 10.1007/s10978-015-9162-z Additional information
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Jonathan Crowe
Professor Jonathan Crowe is Professor of Law and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Law at Bond University.