Philosophy

Title: Levinas-Derrida: a philosophical alliance awaiting the Justice Topic: The mutual influence between Derrida and Levinas is well known. Derrida devoted numerous texts to Levinas and, although the references to Derrida in Levinas are scarcer, we are far from ignoring the profound influence of “Violence and Metaphysics” (1967) in the transition from Totality and Infinity (1961) to Otherwise than Being (1974). Starting from the mutual influence, or rather, from the uninterrupted dialogue between both thinkers, this course aims to find in the work of Levinas and Derrida that layer that allows us to follow philosophical-moral, but also political, sources and breakthroughs to rethink justice and our “living-together” and imagine it for the future. We have chosen to devote this course to the delicate, ambiguous and perhaps understudied question of justice, as it is elaborated in both Derrida’s and Levinas’ philosophical writings, that is through the continuous dialogue, explicit or implicit, between these two philosophical corpuses, because the question of justice, even in a political sense, marks both a profound alliance between Derrida and Levinas and, on the other hand, an undoubted disagreement. In fact, we shall easily recognize in both authors a certain suspicion towards the philosophical justifications of identity, even national, and of sovereignty, of belonging, as well as a profound misgiving towards the ideologies that barricade themselves in the affirmation of identity idioms and in nationalistic ideals. Likewise, one can note the extent to which both philosophers emphasize a consolidated passion for democracy in its European heritage and its hyper-democratic future, alongside the unconditional exigency to think towards a hyperbolic responsibility for the other, for “the stranger, the widow and the orphan” (Levinas) and the urgent necessity to respond ethically, but also politically, to the call of the “foam of the earth” (Arendt) and those who are labeled as “illegal immigrants”, refugees, stateless persons, paria, etc. Now, what ethical-political philosophical idea of justice emerges from the intertwined reading of Derrida and Levinas? Can we imagine, or perhaps only hope, that this philosophical alliance will open the door to rethinking the justice and imagining the “political” in Europe and beyond, for a world still awaiting Justice?

A good command of basic philosophical language

Emmanuel Levinas, – E. Levinas, Totalità e infinito. Saggio sull’esteriorità, a cura di S. Petrosino, Jaca Book, Milano 1990 (e successive): Parti: Prefazione, pp. 19-28; sezione I: pp. 31-99; sezione terza, B., pp. 199-253. Conclusioni, pp. 297-315 (tot. 149 p.). – E. Levinas, Tra noi. Saggi sul pensare-all’altro, a cura e trad. di E. Baccarini, Jaca Book, Milano 2002, (nuova edizione Rusconi, 2021): Parti: pp. 41-69; pp. 123-156, pp. 223-278 (tot. 116 p.). *** – E. Levinas, Alterità e trascendenza, trad. it. S. Ragazzoni, Il Melangolo, Genova 2008: Parte III. Pace e diritto (disponibile su Classroom) (25 p.). *** – E. Levinas, L’adilià del versetto. Letture e discorsi talmudici, a cura di G. Lissa, Guida, Napoli 1989: Parte I: «Le città rifugio», pp. 105-124 (disponibile su Classroom – 19 p.) Jacques Derrida, – J. Derrida, Addio a Emmanuel Levinas, a cura e trad. di S. Petrosino, Jaca Book, Milano, 2011 (200 p.) – J. Derrida, Forza di legge. Il fondamento mistico dell’autorità, a cura di F. Garritano, trad. di. A. Natale, Parte I: «Dal diritto alla giustizia», Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2003, pp. 49-85 (37 p.). – J. Derrida, «Justices», a cura e trad. di S. Dadà, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2019 (70 p.)*** Un saggio introduttivo su Levinas e un saggio interpretativo su entrambi gli autori sono obbligatori (due in totale), almeno tra i seguenti: – O. Ombrosi e R. Zagury-Orly (a cura di), Derrida- Levinas. An Alliance awaiting the political/Une alliance en attente de politique, Mimesis International, Milano-Londra, 2018. – Orietta Ombrosi, L’umano ritrovato. Saggio su Emmanuel Levinas, Marietti, Genova 2010 – nuova edizione aggiornata, Marietti 2026 (in corso di stampa). – S. Petrosino, La scena umana. Grazie a Derrida e Levinas, Jaca Book, Milano, 2015. – S. Petrosino, Emmanuel Levinas. La due sapienze, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1917. Le studentesse e gli studenti del III anno che sostengono l’esame da 6 cfu non dovranno studiare i testi indicati con asterismo.

Stronlgy Recommended

Evaluation: The examination will consist in a spoken test of about 40 minutes. To pass the examination students must prove that they: a) know the content of the set texts; b) are able to clearly discuss them, through a correct use of specialist philosophical terminology, particularly that used by the philosophers under discussion; c) are capable of identifying the most relevant theoretical points and of critically discussing them; d) are capable of independently developing an argument about the topics dealt with.

Performance: It will be a matter of giving lectures as follows: - fifty minutes for an introduction/lecture to the texts that will be read and for the explanation of the topics covered - fifty minutes of reading and commenting the texts - twenty minutes of discussion with the students It will use also a virtual class on platform Google Classroom (the link will be given before the course begins)