Pace e prossimità in Emmanuel Levinas

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyse Emmanuel Levinas’ concept of ethical peace as proximity, as articulated in his 1984 article Paix et proximité. In this short yet remarkably dense text – a synthesis of several central strands of Levinasian thought – Levinas undertakes the demanding task of rethinking peace in a radically different register. In particular, he introduces an inversion within the history of Western philosophy, which has predominantly construed peace as the antithesis of war and, by extension, as the mere absence of conflict. This essay outlines the essential features of Levinas’s critique of the so-called ‘ontology of war’, which pervades much of Western philosophical reflection. It also clarifies his proposed identification of peace with proximity. Finally, it seeks to trace the paradigmatic experience from which ethical peace emerges: the encounter with the face of the Other.