Infinity,a wide-ranging, mythopoeic critique of the premises
of Western philosophy, particularly its devotion to solitary
thought and its avoidance of the other: the individual human
being, whether stranger, neighbor, or friend, who demands a
response from us, and on whose behalf we are called to ac-
count.Totality and Infinitymade Lévinas a major figure in
European thought: an intense, difficult critic of philosophy’s
goals and premises.
Derrida’s essay on Lévinas, entitled “Violence and Meta-
physics” and positioned halfway through Writing and Differ-
ence,is the toughest, most intricate part of the book: its real
center. In “Violence and Metaphysics,” Derrida eloquently
demonstrates Lévinas’s importance for the debate between
philosophy and religion. Derrida means with that title to
underline the way that metaphysics, the tradition of Western
philosophy, violently opposes itself to nonphilosophy. (One of
Derrida’s more noticeable trademarks, from the sixties on, is
his use of the word violencein a metaphorical sense.) Greek
thought aims to conquer the world, exiling anything that can-
not be recognized or categorized by reason. But violence also
appears in the encounter that Lévinas focuses on as the basic
experience left out by Greek philosophy: when the face of a
stranger in trouble breaks in on us, making an unavoidable ap-
peal and interrupting our complacency. We are confronted by
the other in an almost brutal way—a way that strikes home.
Lévinas takes up the significance of the Hebrew word ger,
which means at once foreigner, stranger, and neighbor. In the
Torah, the Israelites are commanded by God to care for the ger
in their midst: they have an obligation toward those who are
unconnected to them by religious or national ties. This obliga-
tion feels unconditional, the response to a cry of need.
Derrida first considers Lévinas’s reaction against Husserl
Writing and DifferenceandOf Grammatology 125