Levinas, Adorno, and the Ethics of the Material Other

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: On the Way to an Ethics of Material Others
	Opening Reflections
		Ethical Imperfection and the Priority of the Material Other
		The Ethics of Alterity and the Negative Dialectics of Nonidentity
		A Materialist Interpretation of Nonidentity and the Other
		Other-Constitution and Aporetic Thinking
	An Overview of the Work and Its Motivating Questions
		Nature, Religion, and Justice
		Perfection and Imperfection
		Why Levinas? Why Adorno?
		Three Queries about Ethics
	Historical Contexts and Critical Departures
		Marxism, Phenomenology, and New Critical Models
		Cacophonies and Dissonances
		Phenomenology and Antiphenomenology
	Conclusion
Part I After Nature: Ethics, Natural History, and Environmental Crisis
	1 Toward a Critical Ecological Model of Natural History
		Introduction to Part One
		Natural History and the Politics of Nature
		Natural History and a Nature Still to Come
		The Dialectic of Enlightenment, Damaged Life, and the Contemporary Ecological Crisis
		Aporetic Materialism and the Dialectic of Enlightenment
		Conclusion and Transition
	2 Natural History, Nonidentity, and Ecological Crisis
		Introduction: Kant, Constitutive Idealism, and the Mythology of Reason
		Communicative Idealism or Natural History?
		Nature as Ideology and Ethics
		Historical Nature and Natural History
		Materiality and a Critical Ethos of Nature
		Conclusion
	3 Communicative Interaction or Natural History? Aesthetics, Ethics, and Nature
		Introduction: The Renunciation of Nature in Habermas and Hegel
		Intersubjective Idealism in Habermas’s Critique of Adorno
		Enlightenment and the Domination of Nature
		The Asymmetrical Primacy and Intermateriality of the Object
		Mimesis as Reification and Responsiveness
		Art and Nature between Suffering and Happiness
		Music, Listening, and the Ethical
		Mending Natural History
		Animality, Happiness, and the Promises of Damaged Life
	4 The Trouble with Life: Life-Philosophy, Antinaturalism, and Transcendence in Levinas
		The Antinaturalism of Classical Phenomenology
		Against Heidegger, Ontology, and Nature
		Holy and Unholy Lands
		Levinas, Heidegger, and Cryptonaturalism
		Levinas and the Other-Transcendence of Life
		Nature, Life, and History
		Nature and Justice
		Conclusion: Living beyond Idealism
	5 An Ethics of Nature at the End of Nature
		Introduction: Nature and History
		Disturbing Nature: Levinas and the Ethics of Other Animals
		Natural Histories: Adorno on Animals and Environments
		Adorno and the Culture of Nature
		Ethical Responsiveness, Imperfectionism, and Minimalism
		Conclusion and Transition to Part Two
Part II Unsettling Religion: Suffering, Prophecy, and the Good
	6 Religion, Suffering, and Damaged Life: Nietzsche, Marx, and Adorno
		Introduction to Part Two
		Religion as and against Power
		Suffering and the Truth and Untruth of Religion
		Between Marx and Nietzsche: Religion and Damaged Life
		Priestly Powers, Damaged Lives, and Imperfectionist Promises of Happiness
		Religion, Oppression, and Prophecy
		Conclusion and Transition
	7 The Disturbance of the Ethical: Kierkegaard, Levinas, and Abraham’s Binding of Isaac
		Introduction
		“Here I Am” in an Intercultural Context
		Confronting Abraham
		The Suspension or the Provocation of the Ethical?
		Is the Ethical or the Religious Primary?
		Interlude: Levinas, Moore, and the Priority of the Good
		Aporetic Ethics in Early Daoism, Kierkegaard, and Levinas
		Conclusion: Contesting Conventional Morality
	8 Ethics between Religiosity and Secularity: Kierkegaard and Levinas
		Introduction
		Questioning Levinas Questioning Kierkegaard
		In a Prophetic Voice
		Pluralism, Religion, and Faith
		Abraham, Isaac, and the Ends of the Ethical
		Adorno, Kierkegaard, Levinas
		Demystifying Levinas: Must One Be Religious to Be Ethical?
		Between Religiosity and Antireligiosity
		Conclusion: Double Strategies in Levinas and Kierkegaard
	9 Prophetic Time, Materiality, and Dignity: Bloch and Levinas
		Introduction: Marxism and Dignity
		Marxism between Dignity and Happiness
		Luxemburg, Bloch, and Democratic Socialism
		The History and Paradox of Dignity
		Natural Law and Prophetic Critique
		Prophetic Temporalities
		Politics and the Dialectic of Dignity
		A Dusselian Interpretation of Bloch and Levinas
		A Concluding Note on Adorno
	10 Ethical Imperfectionism and the Sovereignty of Good: Levinas, Løgstrup, and Murdoch
		Introduction
		Responding to Philosophies of Life, Existence, and Being
		The Problem of Moral Perfectionism
		Ethical Decision or Ethical Demand?
		The Ethics of Demand
		The Immanence and Transcendence of the Good: Murdoch, Løgstrup, and Levinas
		Naturalism, Antinaturalism, and Life’s Sovereign Expressions
		The Good of Ethical Life and the Good beyond Being
		Suffering, Useless Suffering, and Theodicy
		Conclusion and Transition to Part Three
Part III Demanding Justice: Asymmetrical Ethics and Critical Social Theory
	11 Equality, Justice, and Asymmetrical Ethics
		Introduction to Part Three
		Asymmetry and Equality
		Equality and Freedom
		Habermas, Honneth, and the Problematic of Asymmetry
		The Good, the Just, and the Material Other
		Are Equality and Asymmetry Incompatible?
		Ethics beyond the Dialectic of Recognition and Misrecognition
		Conclusion
	12 The Pathologies of Freedom and the Promise of Autonomy
		Introduction: The Problem of Freedom
		Liberal and Neoliberal Freedom
		The Ideological Functions of Freedom
		Questionable Liberty
		Asymmetrical Freedom
		The Idolatry of Liberty and the Pathology of Freedom
		Fraternal Republicanism and the An-archic Republic
		Conclusion: The Priority of the Freedom of the Other
	13 The Limits of Liberalism: Cosmopolitanism, Tolerance, and Asymmetrical Ethics
		Introduction: Colonialism and the Aporias of Cosmopolitan Tolerance
		The Complicity of Cosmopolitan Tolerance with Domination
		Cosmopolitan Tolerance, Colonialism, and Racism
		Love and Justice beyond Communitarianism and Liberalism
		Hospitality, Substitution, and Tolerance
		A Cosmopolitanism of the Other
		Hospitality beyond Liberal Rights
		Conclusion
	14 Recognition, Nonidentity, and the Contradictions of Liberalism
		Introduction: The Crises of Contemporary Forms of Life
		The Good and the Subject
		Repeating the Question: Why Adorno? Why Levinas?
		The Contradictions of Contemporary Liberalism
		The Boundaries of Universalism and the Singularity of the Material Other
		The Other in the Dialectic of Recognition and Misrecognition
		Beyond Consensus and Recognition: The An-archic Ethics of Material Others
Epilogue: Nourishing Life, Unrestricted Solidarity, and the Good
	Against Perfection: Ethical Incompletion and the Good
	The Ethical and the Political Demand
	Critical Natural History and the Ethics of Materiality
	Closing Words: Political Ecology and Political Economy
Notes
Bibliography
	Works of Theodor W. Adorno
	Works of Emmanuel Levinas
	Other Works
Index