Abstract

This book shows how Heidegger and Levinas, in a novel and non-totalizing manner, attempt to re-think the history of philosophy in order to reveal a difference that has remained unthought, yet supposed by it. For Heidegger, this difference is the truth of Being, whereas for Levinas this difference is the other person. Uljée presents the relation between Levinas and Heidegger as a subtle, profound and complex rapport, which includes both their proximity and radical difference. This rapport is conceived not as a confrontation but rather as a transformation, as Levinas's notion of justice does not renounce Heidegger's account of truth and its deployment. Thinking Difference with Heidegger and Levinas shows how the ethical relation transforms the essence and task of philosophy in its entirety, since it shifts the orientation of philosophy and the task of thinking from its concern with truth as ground or foundation to a question of justice. As a consequence, philosophy is no longer riveted to Being and its truth, but answers to the call for justice. As such, philosophy must be conceived of as infinite commencement, where its impossibility to totalize meaning means that it can and remain open to the alterity of transcendence.