The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza

The term “antipathy” does not quite capture the attitude displayed towards Spinoza in the  work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas’s severe criticisms of Spinoza are brief and focused on the latter’s “betrayal” of Judaism (signaled by his excommunication from the Jewish community of Amsterdam) and his mer...

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Autor principal: Montag, Warren
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Centro de Estudios Avanzados. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. 2025
Materias:
Levinas
Spinoza
Alterity
Judaism
Scripture
Alteridad
Judaísmo
Escritura
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/revesint/article/view/50963
Aporte de:
1991. Revista de Estudios Internacionales de Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
id I10-R306-article-50963
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spelling I10-R306-article-509632025-12-22T19:27:11Z The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza Montag, Warren Levinas Spinoza Alterity Judaism Scripture Levinas Spinoza Alteridad Judaísmo Escritura The term “antipathy” does not quite capture the attitude displayed towards Spinoza in the  work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas’s severe criticisms of Spinoza are brief and focused on the latter’s “betrayal” of Judaism (signaled by his excommunication from the Jewish community of Amsterdam) and his merely “philological” reading of Scripture in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. I will argue that his real encounter with Spinoza’s thought appears elsewhere, in a text that nowhere names or alludes to him: Levinas’s 1963 essay, “The Trace of the Other.” It is here, and in a lexicon derived from Husserl and Sartre, that Levinas introduces the notion of the “Other who remains other” even in the face of the “allergy to the Other” endemic to Western Civilization and its philosophy. Levinas’ notion, burdened with its own ambiguities and unanswered questions, is clarified by Spinoza’s meditation at the end of EIV, where he explores the difficulties involved in resisting the powerful mechanisms that work constantly to reduce the Other to the Same and cost born by those unwilling or unable to assimilate. Thus, we might say that Levinas, by posing the question of the Other who remains other, allowed us to read the answers Spinoza provided three hundred years earlier. The term “antipathy” does not quite capture the attitude displayed towards Spinoza in the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas’s severe criticisms of Spinoza are brief and focused on the latter’s “betrayal” of Judaism (signaled by his excommunication from the Jewish community of Amsterdam) and his merely “philological” reading of Scripture in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. I will argue that his real encounter with Spinoza’s thought appears elsewhere, in a text that nowhere names or alludes to him: Levinas’s 1963 essay, “The Trace of the Other.” It is here, and in a lexicon derived from Husserl and Sartre, that Levinas introduces the notion of the “Other who remains other” even in the face of the “allergy to the Other” endemic to Western Civilization and its philosophy. Levinas’ notion, burdened with its own ambiguities and unanswered questions, is clarified by Spinoza’s meditation at the end of EIV, where he explores  the difficulties involved in resisting the powerful mechanisms that work constantly to reduce the Other to the Same and cost born by those unwilling or unable to assimilate. Thus, we might say that Levinas, by posing the question of the Other who remains other, allowed us to read the answers Spinoza provided three hundred years earlier. Centro de Estudios Avanzados. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. 2025-12-05 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion text/html application/pdf https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/revesint/article/view/50963 1991. Revista de Estudios Internacionales; Vol. 7 Núm. 2 (2025): Spinoza y la política internacional moderna: entre el colonialismo y las soberanías. Julio-Diciembre 2025; 13-29 1991. Revista de Estudios Internacionales (Journal of International Studies); Vol. 7 No. 2 (2025): Vol. 7 Nro. 2 (2025). Spinoza and Modern International Politics: Between Colonialism and Sovereignties. July-December 2025; 13-29 2683-720X eng https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/revesint/article/view/50963/51307 https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/revesint/article/view/50963/51148 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
institution Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
institution_str I-10
repository_str R-306
container_title_str 1991. Revista de Estudios Internacionales
language Inglés
format Artículo revista
topic Levinas
Spinoza
Alterity
Judaism
Scripture
Levinas
Spinoza
Alteridad
Judaísmo
Escritura
spellingShingle Levinas
Spinoza
Alterity
Judaism
Scripture
Levinas
Spinoza
Alteridad
Judaísmo
Escritura
Montag, Warren
The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza
topic_facet Levinas
Spinoza
Alterity
Judaism
Scripture
Levinas
Spinoza
Alteridad
Judaísmo
Escritura
author Montag, Warren
author_facet Montag, Warren
author_sort Montag, Warren
title The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza
title_short The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza
title_full The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza
title_fullStr The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza
title_full_unstemmed The Other Who Remains Other: From Levinas to Spinoza
title_sort other who remains other: from levinas to spinoza
description The term “antipathy” does not quite capture the attitude displayed towards Spinoza in the  work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas’s severe criticisms of Spinoza are brief and focused on the latter’s “betrayal” of Judaism (signaled by his excommunication from the Jewish community of Amsterdam) and his merely “philological” reading of Scripture in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. I will argue that his real encounter with Spinoza’s thought appears elsewhere, in a text that nowhere names or alludes to him: Levinas’s 1963 essay, “The Trace of the Other.” It is here, and in a lexicon derived from Husserl and Sartre, that Levinas introduces the notion of the “Other who remains other” even in the face of the “allergy to the Other” endemic to Western Civilization and its philosophy. Levinas’ notion, burdened with its own ambiguities and unanswered questions, is clarified by Spinoza’s meditation at the end of EIV, where he explores the difficulties involved in resisting the powerful mechanisms that work constantly to reduce the Other to the Same and cost born by those unwilling or unable to assimilate. Thus, we might say that Levinas, by posing the question of the Other who remains other, allowed us to read the answers Spinoza provided three hundred years earlier.
publisher Centro de Estudios Avanzados. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.
publishDate 2025
url https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/revesint/article/view/50963
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