The Lexicon · Genealogy · Modern
LEVINAS, EMMANUEL
1906–1995
The Face (The Wall Text Looks Back)
Levinas: ethics begins in the encounter with the face of the Other, which makes a claim prior to all theory. CoCA's wall text aspires to the condition of the face. The visitor stands before the work and is addressed. The address is not optional. The work is not a thing to be appraised; it is a face that makes a claim. The institution mediates the encounter. The institution does not interrupt it.