States of Consciousness and the Staging of Ethical Immediacy in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas

Abstract

Emmanuel Lévinas presents an unprecedented subjective eschatology in his work Totalité et Infini, where the individual rises to their true self through the Other (autre). The self “dwelling” in consciousness is a self-identical but not unchanging unit whose general identity is in continuous heterogeneous movement. Based on this, several states can be distinguished, such as il y a, the Same (même), the Same gradually separating during the hypostasis, and finally, the state ready for the Other. I accompany this unfolding of the consciousness through these several states and the finding of oneself leading toward the Other along with the examination of a specific problem area. In my essay, I analyze this direct connection to the Other as an intense event and the methodological manifestation of its immediate aspect in Lévinas’s variable stages of consciousness.