Language:
French
Year of publication:
2011
Titel der Quelle:
Les Temps Modernes
Angaben zur Quelle:
664 (2011) 137-150
Keywords:
Sartre, Jean-Paul,
;
Lévinas, Emmanuel
;
Antisemitism Philosophy
Abstract:
Compares Sartre's and Levinas's views on Jewish identity and historicity, as presented mainly in "Réflexions sur la question juive" (1946) and "Être juif" (1947). Argues that Sartre's text in fact constitutes a phenomenology of antisemitism and remains relevant, although it deals with the antisemitism of the 1930s. Levinas's ontological reflections on "being Jewish" are determined by the Shoah. What remains revelant in Sartre's work is, on a phenomenological level, the hypothesis of an evanescent Jewish identity and, on a political level, the analysis of antisemitism as the ideology of permanent rebellion and a longing for a compact community of solidary equals. For Levinas, Judaism is not a "question", but an ontological category which cannot be escaped; this was inculcated in the Jews by Hitler. States that there is a desperate irony in Levinas's views on "being Jewish" as being "riveted" and irremissible, as though the experience of the Shoah made the existentialist notions of project, engagement, authenticity, and choice ridiculous. For Levinas, the Jews' choice of authenticity limits itself to chosing Christianity as a religion and as a general ontology. The originality of Jewish existence, as he sees it, lies in breaking off with a world that lacks origin and is simply present. Bensoussan argues that Sartre understood this through discusssions with French philosopher Benny Lévy in the 1980s.
Note:
Discusses also Lévinas' essay "Être juif" which appeared in "Confluences" 7 (1947) 253-264.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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