From Ontology to Existence: Emmanuel Levinas on Human Existence and Attunement

• Main Authors: Tien-Yu Ko, 柯典佑
• Other Authors: WAN-I YANG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/91286337488996510136

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 哲學研究所 === 101 === Being has in the traditional realm of philosophy been regarded as the permanent essence behind the phenomenal, and the pursuit of essence has been the permanent expectation and aspiration in the hearts of humans. Parmenides conceptualizes being as One, considering being as the rationale of permanence and transcendence, which founds a notion that being and thinking are the same. However, contemporary thinkers are not satisfied about the notion as such. Heidegger, for example, rethinks the difference between being and existence, and proposes that Dasein concerns the care of the self and has the construction of existence. Also, he extends the discussion of the angst of one’s death to the philosophical discourse of being-toward-death. However, Levinas contends that Heidegger’s notion of death can hardly become the foundation of the existent, and thinks that his contribution is not radical enough, remaining only on the ontology in traditional sense. Based on the ethical dimension, Levinas attempts to explain the existence of the existent and seeks to find the primary basis, body. The thesis will begin with how Heidegger ensures being within the realm of ontology in today’s sense and with the caesura of the existence under the discussion of being that brings forth Levinas’s attunement of human existence together with the expectation to see the real life of human existence.