Verantwortung bei Emmanuel Levinas und elliptische Subjektivität

What is responsibility? The Lithuanian-French philosopher of Jewish faith, Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), offers a radical answer to this question, the relevance of which for contemporary - and especially theological - reflection on responsibility cannot be overstated. Tobias Zeeb has therefore set himself the task of reconstructing, in a nuanced manner, what constitutes responsibility for Levinas through an analysis of his intellectual development. In doing so, it becomes clear that for Levinas - especially in his later work - responsibility is nothing less than the fundamental structure of subjectivity itself. In this way, he anchors otherness at the origin of subjectivity and describes representation as its mode of existence. Responsibility for the Other becomes the primary task of the subject, who cannot evade it without thereby jeopardizing the very core of their being. This prioritization of the ethical relationship over recourse to one's own essence thus forms the basis for acting in solidarity, which finds its motivation in the Other's claim upon the subject. The author's aim, therefore, is not least to argue that subjectivity - even with regard to the exercise of its finite freedom- is not overwhelmed by such responsibility, but rather guided by it. Building on Levinas and drawing on theological concepts such as the notion of humanity as simul iustus et peccator , the author proposes viewing the subject through the image of the ellipse; that is, defining it eccentrically rather than concentrically. Here, the subject's identity is shaped by two poles in the tension - which can be described as responsibility - between the Other and the Self.

Born 1989; 2025 doctorate from Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen; Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.

I. Zum Begriff der Verantwortung
I.1 Zur Wortherkunft
I.2 Zur gegenwärtigen Bedeutung von Verantwortung und Schematisierung des Begriffs
I.3 Zur Geschichte des Begriffs Verantwortung
II. Das Verantwortungsverständnis bei Emmanuel Levinas - Werkgeschichtlicher Zugang
II.1 Zur Biografie Emmanuel Levinas'
II.2 Zur Begründung des werkgeschichtlichen Zugangs
II.3 Entwicklung des Verantwortungsbegriffs im Werk Levinas'
III. Der Verantwortungsbegriff bei Levinas: Systematische Zugänge
III.1 Verantwortung als Struktur der Subjektivität
III.2 Verantwortung als Stellvertretung für den Anderen
III.3 Verantwortung und das Politische
III.4 Zur Kritik am Levinas'schen Verantwortungsverständnis
III.5 Der Verantwortungsbegriff bei Levinas: Rückschau
IV Schluss: Elliptische Subjektivität als Verwirklichungsraum an-archischer Verantwortung im Horizont einer lutherischen Theologie der Rechtfertigung
IV.1 Zur Erschließungskraft der Figur der Ellipse
IV.2 Zur elliptischen Subjektivität bei Levinas
IV.3 Simul iustus et peccator . Zu einer möglichen Ausdrucksweise elliptischer Subjektivität in der Theologie