Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas, and the politics of dwelling / David J. Gauthier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gauthier, David J., 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lévinas, Emmanuel.

Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976.

Place attachment--Political aspects.

Place attachment.

Place (Philosophy)--Political aspects.

Place (Philosophy).

Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976--Political and social views.

Heidegger, Martin.

Lévinas, Emmanuel--Political and social views.

Political and social views.

Physical Description:

vii, 194 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, [2011]

Summary:

Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas, and the Politics of Dwelling explores the ethical and political implications of the debate between Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas on the question of place. Throughout his philosophical career, Heidegger exhibited concern about the uprooting of man that accompanies the modern Oblivion of being and vividly described the consequences of modern deracination as manifest in everything from everyday in authenticity to the growth of world technology. In response to this perceived crisis, Heidegger propounds a series on ontological models that illuminate the manner in which man is ensconced in the house of being. As it stands, Heidegger's homecoming project is rife with political implications, as it led him to embrace a variety of political stances that run the gamut from an emphasis on individual heroism to volkish nationalism.

No thinker was more disturbed by Heidegger's homecoming project than Levinas. In various writings, Levinas levels an incisive critique of Heidegger's place-bound ontology. More specifically, Levinas accuses Heideggerian ontology of being averse to transcendence and conductive to tyranny, failing to recognize the inherent dignity of the human person, and being a manifestation of latter-day paganism. Additionally, Levinas advances an alternative manner of thinking about the home. For Levinas, the home is a place where wanderers find refuge; it rises to the fullness of its ethical potentiality when used as an instrument of hospitality to the other person.

By considering the Heidegger-Levinas debate, Gauthier illustrates the concerns that animated their perspective projects and the dangers of chauvinism and rootlessness inherent in the attempt to construct a contemporary politics of place. In the end, Heidegger and Levinas point toward the necessity of politics of place that is both onto logical and ethical, and which successfully navigates between the twin extremes of narrow tribalism and rootless cosmopolitanism. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction : Heidegger, Lévinas, and the problem of the homeless spirit

Primordial homelessness : the politics of anxiety in Heidegger's being and time

Finding a home in the German polis : Heidegger and the politics of aesthetic nationalism

Heidegger and the politics of building, dwelling, and thinking

The violence of homecoming : Lévinas's critique of Heidegger

Lévinas and the politics of hospitality

Conclusion : towards a postmodern politics of place.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739141823

0739141821

9780739141847

0739141848

OCLC:

693814710