Nietzsche and Levinas on time

Nibras Chehayed

pp. 381-395

in: Continental Philosophy Review 52 (4), 2019.

Abstract

Despite the criticisms that Levinas addresses to Nietzsche throughout his writing, he also praises Nietzsche's legacy. In Humanism of the Other, he indicates how the Nietzschean man is ""reducing" being, […] undoing by the non-saying of dance and laughter […] the worlds that weave the aphoristic verb that demolishes them; retiring from the time of aging […] by the thought of the eternal recurrence" (Levinas in Humanism of the other, trans. Nidra Poller. University of Illinois Press, Chicago, p 65, 2003). Interpreting Nietzsche's ambiguous thought of the eternal recurrence as a source of youth, Levinas brings to light the fertility of Nietzsche's concept of temporality. The aim of this paper is first to render Nietzsche's thought on time more explicit, focusing on his approach to eternal recurrence, and then to study Levinas' own approach to time. In the end, it will be possible to understand better Levinas' interpretation of Nietzsche, and to shed light on some important similarities between these two different approaches to time.

Cited authors

Levinas Emmanuel

Nietzsche Friedrich