The thought of Emmanuel Levinas from ontology to ethics

The speculative gesture which animates the thought of Levinas consists in departing from the ontological order in order to open up to ethics, and, in this way, to the enigma of human superiority. A new language is, therefore, rendered necessary too express the intersubjective intrigue, the relationship of the ego with irreplaceable otherness, which escapes from the logic of the system and of the totality. Thus it comes about that Levinas distances himself from Heidegger and his conception of the verbality of being, which founds and makes possible discourse as a manifestation and apophansis. In the face of the Said and its pretensions of leading every being back to the light of being, it is necessary to call upon a preontological Say, a simple word and sign made to others. The structure of this language, the terms of which do not refer to any common horizon of sense, suggests that of judgment in the Jewish language, in which the copula is often omitted. Being a refusal of the logic of totality, the philosophy of the otherwise does not lend itself either to the ruses and the violence of political totalitarianism.