Truth and sincerity
the concept of truth in Levinas' philosophy
pp. 163-172
Abstract
Emmanuel Levinas is known for his idea of ethics as first philosophy. In Totality and Infinity (1961), he expresses this concept with the phrase "truth presupposes justice". Levinas' ethical thought has been much discussed in previous literature. However, its implications for contemporary theories of truth have not been discussed at length. This paper aims to investigate how far Levinas' reinterpretation of truth ranges from a phenomenological point of view. In the first section, by reading closely the first section of Totality and Infinity I disclose some peculiarities of Levinas' concept of truth: (1) the "I" as a knowing subject is separated from the world. (2) truth is accomplished by discourse towards the other person. (3) to attain to the truth, the "I" needs to justify not only the fact that he or she describes but also himself or herself. By putting these three points in relation to Husserl's analysis of communication and that of B. Williams in his Truth and Truthfulness, the second section shows that Levinas' concept of truth, which may seem bizarre to some, can contribute to contemporary theories of truth insofar as it reinterprets the concept of truth from the perspective of a "personal" relation to the other person to whom the "I" speaks.
Publication details
Published in:
de Warren Nicolas, Taguchi Shigeru (2019) New phenomenological studies in Japan. Dordrecht, Springer.
Pages: 163-172
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-11893-8_12
Full citation:
Kotegawa Shojiro (2019) „Truth and sincerity: the concept of truth in Levinas' philosophy“, In: N. De Warren & S. Taguchi (eds.), New phenomenological studies in Japan, Dordrecht, Springer, 163–172.