The face-to-face relation (french: rapport de face à face) is a concept in the French

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Emmanuel Lévinas Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics to me ...

' thought on human sociality. It means that, ethically, people are responsible to one-another in the face-to-face encounter. Specifically, Lévinas says that the human face "orders and ordains" us. It calls the subject into "giving and serving" the Other.Paul Marcus
''In Search of the Good Life: Emmanuel Levinas, Psychoanalysis and the Art of Living''
Karnac Books, 2010, p. 16.

Overview

Lévinas' phenomenological account of the "face-to-face" encounter serves as the basis for his

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

and the rest of his philosophy. For Lévinas, "Ethics is the first philosophy." Lévinas argues that the encounter of the Other through the

face The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may aff ...

reveals a certain poverty which forbids a reduction to

Sameness In philosophy, identity (from , "sameness") is the relation each thing bears only to itself. The notion of identity gives rise to many philosophical problems, including the identity of indiscernibles (if ''x'' and ''y'' share all their properti ...

and, simultaneously, installs a responsibility for the Other in the

Self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhoo ...

. Lévinas' account of the face-to-face encounter bears many similarities to

Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism ...

's " I and Thou" relation. Its influence is also particularly pronounced in

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed th ...

's ethical writings. (However, some post-structuralist thinkers maintain that Derrida does not agree with Lévinas. See, perhaps most significantly, Martin Hägglund.) The major difference between Buber's account of the I and Thou relation and the ethics of the face-to-face encounter is the application of Lévinas' asymmetry towards the other. For Buber, ethical relation meant a "symmetrical co-presence," while Lévinas, on the other hand, considers the relation with the other as something inherently asymmetrical: the other as they appear, the face, gives itself priority to the self, its first demand even before I react to it, love it or kill it, is: "thou shalt not kill me". Such a demand for Lévinas is prior to any reaction or any assertion of freedom by a subject. The face of the other in this sense looms above the other person and traces "where God passes." God (the infinite Other) here refers to the God of which one cannot refuse belief in Its history, that is the God who appears in traditional belief and of scripture and not some conceptual God of philosophy or ontotheology. In the face-to-face encounter we also see how Lévinas splits ethics from morality. Ethics marks the primary situation of the face-to-face whereas morality comes later, as some kind of, agreed upon or otherwise, set of rules that emerge from the social situation, wherein there are more than just the two people of the face-to-face encounter. This ethical relation for Lévinas is prior to an

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophy, philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, Becoming (philosophy), becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into Category ...

of nature, instead he refers to it as a

meontology Meontology is the philosophical study of non-being. History The word comes from the Ancient Greek μή, ''me'' "non" and ὄν, ''on'' "being" (confer ontology). It refers not exactly to the study of what does not exist, but an attempt to cover ...

, which affirms a meaning beyond

Being In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities e ...

, a mode of non-Being (Greek: ''μή, me'' "non" and ''ὄν, on'' "being").

Comparison

Face-to-face is similar to Mikhail Bakhtin's ethical concept in art and answerability and

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centu ...

's concept of the authentic guilt (present/face-to-face) as opposed to an inauthentic other.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Face-To-Face Accountability Concepts in epistemology Concepts in ethics Concepts in the philosophy of mind Continental philosophy Emmanuel Levinas Face Metaphysics of mind Ontology Phenomenology Social concepts Social philosophy