Annotation
Coexistence (Mitsein) or Dasein-with (Mitdasein) represents an essential feature of Dasein within the framework of Heidegger’s existential analysis set forward in "Being and Time". However, it receives attention only in connection with the analyses of everyday Dasein in the mode of impersonal "they" (man), while it plays no role in the original existential interpretation of Dasein in the second section of "Being and Time”. Therefore, Heidegger was often criticized for seriously neglecting the role of intersubjective relationships in his analyses of human existence. The French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas is one of the most piercing critics of Heidegger’s neglect of the relation to the Other. Lévinas’ work "Totality and Infinity" can be read as a great polemic with Heidegger's "Being and Time" precisely with regard to the role played - or rather not played - in it by the relationship to the Other or intersubjectivity. In the seminar, we will primarily confront the relevant passages of these two works: Heidegger's "Being and Time" (especially § 25–27) and Lévinas' "Totality and Infinity". Occasionally, however, we will also focus on other texts by Lévinas, where he critically deals with Heidegger, or on other texts by Heidegger, in which he responds to criticism from the representatives of the philosophy of dialogue.
Note: the course starts on February 23, 2023