呼吸？不呼吸？列維納斯論呼吸困難、第三方與正義

To Breathe, or Not to Breathe? Breathlessness, the Third, and Justice in Levinas

本文以「呼吸困難」此肉身觀點閱讀列維納斯對正義、第三方、以及政治等概念。列維納斯認為哲學與政治整體性存在著一種形構關係，也就是，政治思想依賴形上學整體性的概念而發展，呼吸困難這個肉身概念改寫了此形構關係，改變了個體存在的意義與目的－－不是實現、表達自己，而是服務他人。呼吸困難成為倫理的肉身起源，以呼吸困難為根本，他人受難即自己受難，受難成為政治運動的根基。呼吸困難是一個支撐點，它解釋了列維納斯思想中倫理與政治的連結與結合。正義／第三方行使著雙重的氣動工作：第三方一方面主題化「我──他」非對稱關係以形成存在，另一方面同時進行干擾、阻斷、消解那個存在。呼吸困難即是氣動的第三方，顯示呼氣與吸氣的落差，而非整體化、同一化呼氣與吸氣兩種時刻。第三方的產生保留了呼氣與吸氣之間的呼吸困難與中間地帶，而政治中則保留了倫理。本文章進一步探討列維納斯「對希特勒主義哲學的反思」一文，指出極權主義的問題在於對呼吸的同質化與共時性。

The article proposes to read Levinas’ notion of justice, the third, and politics through the corporal perspective of breathlessness. It contends that if there is an isomorphism or a structural parallel between the philosophical and the political totality in which political thoughts rely on metaphysics informed by a concept of totality, Levinas rewrites that isomorphic structure corporeally based on breathlessness. By making breathlessness the corporal origin of ethics and suffering the foundation of political actions, Levinas alters the meaning and purpose of individual existence—not to fulfill and express oneself, but to serve others. Breathlessness is the fulcrum, the focal point that explains the conjunction between ethics and politics in Levinas’ thought. If the dual functions of the third are to thematize the asymmetrical relation and to formulate being only to reveal another presence of disruption by cancelling and annihilating that being, then breathlessness is the pneumatic third term that aspires to mark the disjunction of inspiration and expiration rather than totalizing the two moments. In this manner, each entry of the third preserves breathlessness amid of breath and ethics amid of politics. The article further examines the problem of the synchronization of breath in totalitarian regimes through reading Levinas’ “Reflections on the Philosophy of Hitlerism.”