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Step 3 of 6~8 min read~31 min left
The Face Opens the First Discourse
Read Levinas's key formulations on the face, infinity, and obligation.
“The way in which the other presents himself, exceeding the idea of the other in me, we here name ==face==. [...] The ==face== of ==the Other== at each moment destroys and overflows the plastic image it leaves me, the idea existing to my own measure. [...] It expresses itself. [...] The ==face== opens the primordial discourse whose first word is obligation. [...] The being that expresses itself imposes itself, but does so precisely by appealing to me with its destitution and nudity, its hunger, without my being able to be deaf to that appeal. [...] The Other manifests itself by the absolute resistance of its defenceless eyes. [...] The infinite in the ==face== [...] brings into question my freedom, which is discovered to be murderous and usurpatory. — Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity (1961), trans. Alphonso Lingis, pp. 50–51, 197–215”