Review

Reviewed Work(s): Emmanuel Lévinas. Denker des Anderen by Wolfgang N. Krewani

Review by: A. Lichtigfeld
Source: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, 56ste Jaarg., Nr. 1 (MAART 1994), pp. 157-158
Published by: Peeters Publishers/Tijdschrift voor Filosofie
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40886989
Accessed: 23-09-2018 02:22 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, Peeters Publishers are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Tijdschrift voor Filosofie

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 23 Sep 2018 02:22:49 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BOEKBESPREKINGEN 157

in hun conservatisme,
ken woord. In een laats
wordt de gewaagde Ste
voor gesproken taal en
N. argumenteert niet a
biografische en histor
stijl en zijn aandacht vo
op. Jammer dat de pri
omvang ervan.
W. Van Herck

Wolfgang N. Krewani, Emmanuel Levinas. Denker des Anderen (Kolleg

Philosophie). Freiburg/ München, Verlag Karl Alber, 1992, 20 x 12, 268 p., DM 38
(kart.).

By any Standard this is a fascinating book on Le vinas* philosophy. The author, known
for his competent translation of some major works of Levinas into German, is offering his
Lévinas in the hope of profiding the reader with some intellectual background of recent
philosophy, which will enable one to appreciate Levinas' philosophy as a novel construct
amongst its enterprises (p. 25 ). Krewani's method is to attempt to enter, as it were, into
the mind of Levinas, the thinker of the Other, in such a manner as to re-creating the ac-
tual process of Levinas' thinking. This would account for his investigation, step by step,
of Levinas categories, based on well-chosen quotations from Levinas' writings. The reader
will find excellent argumentation, careful scholarship and original judgment in this
volume.
Considerations of space would permit just a rough summary of the contents as follows.
The book is divided - apart from the Introduction - into four parts, each having sub-
divisions. In part one, the author, under the heading of 'the problem of time' , is dealing
with the crisis of Europe, „leading man to a situation without a way out" (p. 39). He,
furthermore reflects on time, space, logos and myth ( becoming and being), Existenz and
time (also on Husserl' s influence). In part two ( 'the erotic transcendence' ), the author
discusses hypostasis (p. 58 fol. and p. 70 fol. ) and ecstasy (p. 66 fol. ), the world ( arrival
of consciousness), the concept of meaning (Sinn, p. 82), the end of the world, on
resemblance, on art, finally investigating as to how death can be overcome (father lives
forth in his child). In part three ( 'the ethical transcendence' ) the subjects of investigation
are the following : guilt, enjoyment, ethics and language (p. 128 ), representation and con-
stitution (p. 135 ), the significance of the 'horizon' (p. 143 ), the face to face encounter
(the 'I - Other' relationship as a responsibility for the Other), about the thinking subject
( for to think is, as the author quotes, , , to have the idea of infinity , or to be taught " ), the
search for truth ( social experience ), welcome to the Other ( as hospitality ), on ethics and
politics (room for ethics left ? - p. 158 ), definition of violence (p. 160), the fear of one's
being (p. 167). With regard to 'ethics and time', Krewani discusses 'transcendence in

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 23 Sep 2018 02:22:49 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 158 BOEKBESPREKINGEN

relation to the Absolute

is rooted in the Absolute
the face of the Other ( b
jectivity' ) conclude th
Krewani poses the proble
fer from each other (p.
elimination of love as E
Levinas' line of thoug
transcendence (p. 182 fo
as the author explains, in
tion of the temporalit
answered(p. 184-5). Refl
ing with Husserl' s noem
31, transi. A. Iingis, The
context, p. 212 ; the searc
Kant's and Heidegger's
siderations complete thi
Krewani recommends Le
meaning to one's life (p.
(when Being withdraws
responsibility for him' (
refers to 'hypostasis' (as
tion, Krewani deals with
third part' (p. 241 ) whic
justice (p. 244). Finally,
Levinas' , , placing in bei
in Otherwise than Being
With this excellent wor
an understanding of Lev
A. LlCHTIGFELD

Richard RORTY, Philosophical Papers. Vol. 1 : Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth. Vol.
II: Essays on Heidegger and Others. Cambridge, University Press, 1991, 22,5 x 14,5,
X-226 p. andX-202 p., £ 27,50 / $ 39,50 (Hardback); £ 8,95 / $ 12,95 ( Paperback ) pro
volume.

Rorty, one of the most original and interesting voices in contemporary philosophy, is
here examining in a collection of papers (essays, most of them published in periodicals or
contributions to a symposium), some issues within analytic philosophy. And ,, those in the
second volume deals " , as Rorty says, , , with issues arising out of the work of Heidegger,
Derrida, and Foucault". Confessing his debt to Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Dewey, and,
in particular, to Wilfrid Sellars and Willard van Orman Quine (p. 1 ), Rorty points out that

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 23 Sep 2018 02:22:49 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms