From Bergson to Levinas: « The meaning of the human »
A France-Israel Workshop
Sunday, October 30th – Monday, October 31st 2022
At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(Beit Maiersdorf, Mount Scopus) and on Zoom
In memoriam of Prof. Sol Neely (1973-2022)
Outstanding Levinas scholar
Co-founder and first president of the North American Levinas Society
Organizers:
Joëlle Hansel & Michel Olivier (Collège international de philosophie, Paris)
Michael Roubach (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
With the support of:
Collège international de philosophie (Ciph, Paris)
S.H. Bergman Center for Philosophical Research (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Société Internationale de Recherche Emmanuel Levinas (SIREL, Paris)
LSMU Emmanuel Levinas Center (Kaunas, Lithuania)
Registration to attend on zoom:
https://u-paris.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsfumgqDstE9SLwDbXxMQru07kGd02tHUS
Theoretical works, novels, poetry, essays, literary, artistic or cinematographic criticism, theater, music: the diversity of genres that 20th century French philosophy has borrowed from bears witness to its remarkable fertility. Contrary to the compartmentalization that is often established between them, intense interactions have taken place between philosophy, literature and aesthetics. This is illustrated, each in its own way, by the work of Bergson, Levinas, Blanchot, Deleuze, Derrida, Jankélévitch, Michel Henry, Lyotard and Sartre.
Emmanuel Levinas holds a singular place in this constellation of philosophers who were his contemporaries and, for the most part, his interlocutors. The Bible and literature made him discover the fundamental problem of the meaning of the human. This question is the "golden thread" that runs through his work, from the first writings of the 1930s to the last texts of the 1990s. It is also the point at which his path of thought crossed that of other 20th century French philosophers.
Is the question of the "meaning of the human" the theme around which the questions specific to French philosophers of the 20th century can be articulated? Is it an anchor point or, conversely, a stumbling block, as is evident from the debates it has provoked, which are far from over today? These are the issues that our conference aims to clarify.
Participants:
Flora Bastiani, Université de Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, France
Hanoch Ben Pazi, Bar Ilan University, Israel
Corinne Enaudeau, professeur honoraire en classes préparatoires, France
Michael Fagenblat, Open University, Israel
Joelle Hansel, Collège international de philosophie, Paris/Jerusalem
Ingrida Krasauskienė, Head of Emmanuel Levinas Center, Kaunas, Lithuania
Monika Murawska, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland
Michel Olivier, Collège international de philosophie, Université Paris-Nanterre, France
Jean-François Rey, professeur honoraire, Université d'Artois, France
Michael Roubach, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Jean-Michel Salanskis, Université Paris-Nanterre, France
Ynon Wygoda, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Sunday, October 30th
Morning
10:30: Greetings
11:00-13:00 Levinas and Bergson
Jean-François Rey, Université d’Artois, France
Human, non-human, dishuman: evil and the element in Levinas’ thought (texte français sur demande)
Hanoch Ben Pazi, Bar Ilan University, Israel
‘Learning’ and the consciousness of time
13:00-14:30: Lunch break
Afternoon
14 :30-16 :30 Jean-François Lyotard: Humanism and Postmodernism
Monika Murawska, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland
The inhuman as human according to Jean-François Lyotard
Michel Olivier, Collège international de philosophie & Université Paris-Nanterre
A French philosophical identity: a bizarre point of view of Jean-François Lyotard? (texte français sur demande)
16:30-17:00 Coffee break
17:00-18:00 Entretien sur Lyotard avec Corinne Enaudeau, sa fille (en français)
18:00-19:00 Sartre, Deleuze, Derrida
Jean-Michel Salanskis, Université Paris-Nanterre, France
The human: essence, norm, game and values
Monday, October 31st
Morning
9:30-11:30 Levinas and Jankélévitch
Ynon Wygoda, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
The Notion of Humanity and the Syntax of Forgiveness
Joëlle Hansel, Collège international de philosophie, Paris/Jérusalem
Levinas, Jankélévitch: Variations on Being Human (texte en français sur demande)
11:30-12:00: Coffee break
12:00-13:00 Surprising Levinas
Corinne Enaudeau, professeur honoraire en 1ère supérieure, France
L’inconvenance de l’humain : sexe, folie et nudité dans un essai romanesque de Levinas (en français)
13:00-14:30 Lunch break
Afternoon
14:30-16:30 Phenomenology
Michael Roubach, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Truth and its Pursuit in Levinas and Henry
Michael Fagenblat, Open University, Israël
Intelligibility and Answerability
16:30-17:00 Coffee break
17:00-18:00 Levinas in practice
Flora Bastiani, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
The "intermediary sphere", the nursing look and the suffering body in intensive care unit (texte en français sur demande)
18:00-18:30 Levinas in Kaunas
Ingrida Krasauskienė, Head of LSMU Emmanuel Levinas Center, Kaunas, Lithuania
Keeping the Memory Alive – Unexpected Challenges
18:30-18:45: Conclusions and Perspectives