Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority

essay by Lévinas

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July 17, 2026

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Emmanuel Lévinas's Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority critiques Western philosophy's focus on ontology, arguing it reduces the "other" to sameness. Lévinas, a Lithuanian-born French philosopher, believed this tendency, rooted in instrumental reason, led to a "will to domination" and was responsible for 20th-century crises like totalitarianism.12

He proposed that ethics, specifically the encounter with the "face of the Other," should be considered "first philosophy". This ethical relationship, characterized by an infinite debt to the Other, offers an alternative to the totality sought by ontology. Lévinas's work emphasizes respecting the irreducible particularity and "otherness" of individuals, contrasting with philosophy's historical tendency to grasp concepts rather than acknowledge unique beings.132

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continental philosophy
Lévinas
In his major work, Totality and Infinity (1961), Lévinas presented a powerful critique of Heidegger for having granted priority to ontology over “ethics,” by which he meant one’s ethical relationship to “the Other.” By beginning with the Seinsfrage, or the question of being, Heidegger’s philosophy merely reenacted the fundamental…
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In his major work, Totality and Infinity (1961), Lévinas presented a powerful critique of Heidegger for having granted priority to ontology over “ethics,” by which he meant one’s ethical relationship to “the Other.” By beginning with the Seinsfrage, or the question of being, Heidegger’s philosophy merely reenacted the fundamental…
Read More

Western philosophy
Recent trends
In his major work, Totality and Infinity (1961), he contended that, as it is used in Western philosophy, reason enforces “domination” and “sameness” and destroys plurality and otherness. He called for the transcendence of reason in a first philosophy based on ethics—and in particular on the biblical commandment “You…
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In his major work, Totality and Infinity (1961), he contended that, as it is used in Western philosophy, reason enforces “domination” and “sameness” and destroys plurality and otherness. He called for the transcendence of reason in a first philosophy based on ethics—and in particular on the biblical commandment “You…
Read More

metaphysics
Postmodern and other Continental critiques
…infini: essais sur l’extériorité (1961; Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority) and subsequent works, constitutes an immense effort to reverse this fateful misstep. The title of a 1984 text, “Ethics as First Philosophy” (“Éthique comme philosophie première”), aptly summarizes the anti-metaphysical thrust of his thought. Lévinas’s characterizations of metaphysics…
Read More
…infini: essais sur l’extériorité (1961; Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority) and subsequent works, constitutes an immense effort to reverse this fateful misstep. The title of a 1984 text, “Ethics as First Philosophy” (“Éthique comme philosophie première”), aptly summarizes the anti-metaphysical thrust of his thought. Lévinas’s characterizations of metaphysics…
Read More