Autonomy, or Being Inspired
Autonomy, or Being Inspired
This chapter turns to Levinas's deeply Kantian critique of Kant in Otherwise than Being to explore subjectivity as a being affected by something in it that exceeds it. Unconditioned subjectivity understood as relationship (as Chapter 2 studied it in Kant's third antinomy) and the way in which the alterity of the law affects subjectivity (in the second Critique and the Religion) resonate in Levinas's conception of subjectivity as other-within-the-same and as substitution. Otherwise than Being, this chapter shows, expresses subjectivity as an anarchic being affected by performing its own being disturbed as text. By offering a rhetorical reading of Levinas's book that traces how its language acts out the emergence of subjectivity, this chapter sheds light on a revolutionary notion of subjectivity implicit in Kant's thinking, which Levinas pursues to its deepest consequences. Autonomy for both thinkers would ultimately consist in believing oneself the author of an order one finds in oneself.
Keywords: Kant, Unconditioned, Law, Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being, Anarchy, Other-within-the-same, Substitution, Rhetoric
Fordham Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
