The Foundation of Ethical Metaphysics

Abstract

In the preceding chapter I have tried to show that separated being is no longer one with the totality of being; it is a being which has a locale, dwells, works, exists within an economy. To dwell, to work, to exchange, to meditate are the lived modalities of separated being. Its life world is the domain of economy; within its confines the products of man’s labor are subject to exchange and thus to usurpation. Yet inner life persists although it cannot recognize itself in that economy. The life of economy is therefore more than precarious; it is experienced as tyranny.1 This tyranny is represented by the state; the persons we are, our interiority, is betrayed rather than expressed in the political domain. It is precisely this network of functional relationships with others which Levinas designates as totality. The totality is the whole into which the observable lives of individuals are incorporated. It devours individuality and fails to recognize genuine alterity and the meaning of inner life.