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oa Die Idee der Schöpfung im Werk Levinas’
*Neue Fassung eines Vortrags auf dem Levinas-Kolloquium in Löwen, 10-12 März 1983.
Sigla: AE – Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence, La Haye 1974.
AV – L’au-delà du verset, éd. de Minuit 1982.
DL – Difficile Liberté, éd. Albin Michel 1963.
EE – De l’existence à l’existant, éd. Fontaine, Paris 1947.
RO – La réalité et son ombre, in: Temps modernes, nov. 1948.
TI – Totalié et Infini. La Haye 1961.
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion, Volume 38, Issue 4, Oct 1984, p. 298 - 309
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- 01 Oct 1984
Abstract
‘Creation’ is a religious concept but Levinas uses it in his philosophy. According to him, God enters philosophy as her in-finition and her transcendance. Without Him, immanence is only ‘il y a’, the senseless event of nature, society and history. Creation is ‘il y a’ brought under the impact of transcendance by man. Man is chosen to bear creation’s evil by substituting himself for his neighbour’s (fr.:autrui) suffering and guilt, even if it costs his identity. – Here three questions arise: is there no ethics in joy, art and eros? Is man creation’s aim? Is creation only ‘material for his duty’? – L. Acknowledges man’s self-defence only in a secondary, derived sense: in society, where justice is to reign. Social, distributive justice has its roots in the infinite giving of personal ethics, but the two remain separate – So ethics is twofold, personal and social, never to influence one another?