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<p>This article presents a fresh reconstruction of Emmanuel Levinas’ constellation of references to Plato (<i>Platonica</i>) in&#xa0;<i>Totality and Infinity</i>, with particular attention to Levinas’ transformation of the Platonic desire for the Good into the ethical significance of eros. Although Levinas critiques a Platonic metaphysics of presence, he reactivates Platonic motifs—especially the Good beyond being and the erotic structure of transcendence—in service of a phenomenology of ethical responsibility. Drawing on Plato’s&#xa0;<i>Symposium,&#xa0;Phaedrus,&#xa0;Republic</i>, and&#xa0;<i>Apology</i>, the study shows how Levinas reorients eros from a teleological ascent toward the intelligible into an asymmetrical opening to the Other. The Good, no longer a sovereign Idea, becomes an imperative trace that commands without appearing, while eros, reimagined through desire and fecundity, reveals the contours of ethical transcendence through bodily vulnerability. Levinas’ anachronistic but creative retrieval of Platonic symbols is not a repetition of doctrinaire Platonism, but what he calls a return “in a new way”—one that relocates transcendence from the heights of metaphysical vision to the immediacy of the imploring face. By situating Levinas’ ethics within and against the Platonic tradition, the article reframes the ethical relation as a speech-initiated rupture rather than a harmonious ascent, offering a distinctive alternative to classical accounts of justice, knowledge, and love—and a new frame for reading Plato through an ethics of alterity and eros.</p>

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Desiring the Good for the Other: Extending Levinas’ Platonica in Totality and Infinity towards an Ethics of Eros

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年7月28日

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  • Huaiyuan Zhang

摘要

This article presents a fresh reconstruction of Emmanuel Levinas’ constellation of references to Plato (Platonica) in Totality and Infinity, with particular attention to Levinas’ transformation of the Platonic desire for the Good into the ethical significance of eros. Although Levinas critiques a Platonic metaphysics of presence, he reactivates Platonic motifs—especially the Good beyond being and the erotic structure of transcendence—in service of a phenomenology of ethical responsibility. Drawing on Plato’s Symposium, Phaedrus, Republic, and Apology, the study shows how Levinas reorients eros from a teleological ascent toward the intelligible into an asymmetrical opening to the Other. The Good, no longer a sovereign Idea, becomes an imperative trace that commands without appearing, while eros, reimagined through desire and fecundity, reveals the contours of ethical transcendence through bodily vulnerability. Levinas’ anachronistic but creative retrieval of Platonic symbols is not a repetition of doctrinaire Platonism, but what he calls a return “in a new way”—one that relocates transcendence from the heights of metaphysical vision to the immediacy of the imploring face. By situating Levinas’ ethics within and against the Platonic tradition, the article reframes the ethical relation as a speech-initiated rupture rather than a harmonious ascent, offering a distinctive alternative to classical accounts of justice, knowledge, and love—and a new frame for reading Plato through an ethics of alterity and eros.