Title: Redeeming the elemental: Levinas on nature

Authors: Robert Switzer

Addresses: American University in Cairo, Egypt

Abstract: Can we find in nature what Levinas has called ||the face of the Other?|| While acknowledging that Levinas himself resists such a move, I argue here that his thought can ground environmental ethics. The fundamental traits demanded by Levinas|s account can be found, specifically, in the challenging strangeness of the natural world, and also in its mortality and susceptibility, as increasingly brought to light by human techno-power. Nature's ethical demand is uncovered via a re-examination of what Levinas calls ||the elemental||, here reclaimed as a milieu out of which the natural world arises as ||mattering|, as demanding our responsibility and deserving of our care.

Keywords: Levinas; nature; natural world; environmental ethics.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2002.053892

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2002 Vol.4 No.2, pp.23 - 35

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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