Ethic-Religious Language in Emmanuel Lévinas

Abstract

This article has the intention of showing how ethic-religious language or social relation in Emmanuel Lévinas’ thought is capable of opposing the onto-theological discourse about God. First, we will try to show the presuppositions through which Lévinas conceives ethical language that is subtracted from objective or ontological discourse thanks to the existence underlying the being. Subsequently, we will analyze the meaning language assumes in the author’s thought and his critique to the onto-theological discourse. Finally, the investigation will demonstrate that Levinasian hermeneutics is ethical, full of opening to the other, filled with solicitude and that the glory of the infinite, in the saying of the prophetic language, can only be glorified in an ethical relation, where man is always led to responsibility by another man: it is in the testimony of prophetic language that God’s significance signifies without ceasing.