A note against empiricism: Derrida quotes Scheler (in his essay on Levinas, “Violence and Metaphysics”) to this effect: “I see not only the eye of an other, I see also that he looks at me.” That is, what is seen is not only a thing, a dead object, but also a responding subject, an intention even. If a look can be seen, then empiricism and all the reductionisms that are associated with it are destroyed. But a look can be... Read more

Levinas claims that an absolute other must necessarily be invisible. If the other is visible, I can at least “capture” and “grasp” and “encompass” him in my gaze, which is the first moment in a sequence that could lead to capturing, grasping, and encompassing and dominating him in other ways. An invisible other is beyond my gaze, and therefore absolutely beyond my control. We can “fix” someone with our gaze, but not an invisible other, for where shall we look?... Read more

In his history of the ancient concept of progress, E. R. Dodds says that one <blockquote>fundamental limitation on the idea of progress was imposed by the theory of Forms, both in Platonic and in the Aristotelian version. For Plato all progress consists in approximation to a pre-existing model; the model has existed and will exist to all eternity in the unchanging world of transcendent Forms. There is thus, strictly speaking, no open future and no such thing as invention; what... Read more