''Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority'' (french: Totalité et Infini: essai sur l'extériorité) is a 1961 book about

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, concerns m ...

by the philosopher

Emmanuel Levinas 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 ...

. Highly influenced by

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

, it is considered one of Levinas's most important works.

Summary

The Other

Levinas advances the thesis that all ethics derive from a confrontation with an other. This other, with whom we interact concretely, represents a gateway into the more abstract Otherness. The distinction between totality and infinity divides the limited world, which contains the other as a material body, from a spiritual world. Subjects gain access to this spiritual world, infinity, by opening themselves to the Otherness of the other. For example:

Presence

Levinas places heavy emphasis on the physical presence involved in meeting the other. He argues that only a face-to-face encounter allows true connection with Infinity, because of the incessance of this type of interaction. Written words and other words do not suffice because they have become past by the time the subject perceives them. That is: they have fallen into the register of totality.

History

The book contains several observations on

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and the judgement of history, like "the judgement of history is always pronounced by default."

Reception

''Totality and Infinity'' is considered an original and significant contribution to the world of philosophy—

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Pri ...

in particular. The work can be read as a response to Levinas's teachers, the philosophers

Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...

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 centur ...

. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Britannica both identify ''Totality and Infinity'', along with '' Otherwise than Being'' (1974), as one of Levinas's most important works. In "Violence and Metaphysics", an essay included in ''

Writing and Difference ''Writing and Difference'' (french: L'écriture et la différence) is a book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The work, which collects some of the early lectures and essays that established his fame, was published in 1967 alongside ''Of G ...

'' (1967), the philosopher

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 t ...

criticized ''Totality and Infinity''.

Derrida, Jacques 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 t ...

(2001). ''Writing and Difference''. Routledge Classics, 97–192.

References

Secondary literature

*Callier, Bernadette
"Totality and Infinity, Alterity, and Relation: From Levinas to Glissant."
Journal of Francophone Philosophy, 19(1), 2011. *Davidson, Scott, and Diane Perpich
"Totality and Infinity at 50"
Duquesne University Press, 2012. *Derrida, Jacques. "Violence and Metaphysics: Violence and Metaphysics: An Essay on the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas," in ''

''. *Mensch, James. Lectures on Totality and Infinit

*Mensch, James. Levinas' Existential Analytic, A Commentary on Totality and Infinity, Evanston, Il.: Northwestern University Press, 2015. {{Authority control 1961 non-fiction books Books by Emmanuel Levinas Contemporary philosophical literature Ethics books French non-fiction books Phenomenology literature