The encoutner of the visage as an abstaining stance or the radicalisation of the epoché in Emmanuel Levinas
Abstract
The talk attempts to compare the encounter with the visage of the other, which for Emmanuel Levinas implicits his fundamental ethics, with the act of the epoché. Starting from the critice on the concept of (husserlian) reduction by Levinas, which has the form of a counter-reduction, the talk shows a radicalisation of the concept of epoché from a mere method or theoretical device to a practical act.
Firstly, with a brief overview of the philosophical history of the concept and a structural description of the act of epoché it is shown how it could be understood as a special stance toward the other, that is an abstaining stance. Secondly, this analysis can be compared to Levinas tought about the visage of the other to illuminate a structural kinship between the two concepts.