自由之为责任:列维纳斯的他者自由观

Liberty as Responsibility:Levinas's Conception of Liberty of Others

对总体性、同一性及相关观念的梳理,对作为无限的超越性的他者的寻绎,使列维纳斯得以从“他者优先于自我”这一信念出发来探讨自由。自由之为责任、社会是平等和博爱关系编织起来的、多元论不是个体层面的而是全人类视角下的多元等重要主张,颠覆了思考自由的既有路径,并在理论上指示了使自由彻底摆脱战争之威胁的可能性。列维纳斯的他者自由观饱含宗教色彩,从现实角度看它似乎要求得过多,但同伯林等人的反思相比,他者自由观展现出空前的深刻性和颠覆性的批判力度,具有不容轻估的理论价值。

The critique of totality,identity and related conceptions,and the deduction of the other as transcendence as infinity,allow Levinas to explore liberty from the conviction that the other have priority to the self.Important propositions such as liberty as responsibility,society as a knit of relations of equality and fraternity,and pluralism not at the level of the individual but in the perspective of humanity as a whole,overturned the existing paths to construct conception of liberty and indicate the theoretical possibility of freeing liberty from the threat of war once and for all.Levinas's conception of liberty of others,with its religious overtones,seems too demanding from a practical point of view,but compared with the reflections of Berlin and others,its unprecedented profundity and subversive critical force is enough to show its theoretical value.