Emmanuel Levinas: a philosophy of Exodus

Exit, escape, wandering, uprooting, are concepts that mark the philosophical path of Levinas to such an extent that his reflections can appropriately be defined as a thought of exodus. The exodus from Totality to Otherwise than being, the semantics of “path” instead of “ethics,” have consequences on the political level, because the Promised Land is not a place but the encounter with others. Politics of exodus is then a policy able to constantly question one’s institutions. Such a horizon of political ethics affects also, evidently, the relations between Palestine and the State of Israel, in relation to which – notwithstanding his very often criticized lack of neutrality – Levinas does not undervalue the danger that Israel, as “State of David,” turns into a sheer “State of Ceasar.” This dubious situation leads to one of the most problematic questions of his Quatre lectures talmudiques: is the promised land also a permitted land?