Philosopher Emmanuel Levinass ethics as first philosophy explicates a human obligation and responsibility to and for the Other that is both an unending and an imperfect commitment. In Levinass Rhetorical Demand: The Unending Obligation of Communication Ethics, Ronald C. Arnett underscores the profundity of Levinass insights for communication ethics.
Arnett outlines communication ethics and this primordial call of responsibility as central to Levinass writing and mission. Arnett analyzes communication ethics through a Levinasian lens with examination of social artifacts ranging from the Heidegger-Cassirer debate to Rupert Murdochs News of the World story concerning illicit possession of information.
Levinass Rhetorical Demand offers an account of Levinass project and the pragmatic implications of attending to a call of responsibility to and for the Other. This book yields a rich and nuanced understanding of Levinass work, a constellation of related theorists and thinkers, and application that reveals the practical importance of Levinass understanding of ethics.
| Foreword |
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vii | |
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| Acknowledgments |
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xxi | |
| Introduction: Emmanuel Levinas and Communication Ethics---Origins and Traces |
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1 | (15) |
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1 Primordial Gesture: The Difficult Freedom of Communication Ethics |
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16 | (25) |
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2 Footprints and Echoes: Emmanuel Levinas |
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41 | (25) |
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3 The Commencement of Responsibility: The Enigma of the Face |
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66 | (21) |
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4 Proper Names: Saying, Said, and the Trace |
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87 | (27) |
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5 The Impersonal and the Sacred: Igniting Personal Responsibility |
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114 | (20) |
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6 Imperfection: Ethics Disrupted by Justice---The Name of the Rose |
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134 | (23) |
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7 Possession and Burden: Otherwise Than Murdoch's Information Acquisition |
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157 | (18) |
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8 The Ethical Parvenu: Unremitting Accountability |
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175 | (23) |
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9 Heidegger's Rectorate Address: Being as Mistaken Direction |
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198 | (23) |
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10 Adieu to Levinas: The Unending Rhetoric of the Face |
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221 | (28) |
| Notes |
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249 | (30) |
| Bibliography |
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279 | (18) |
| Index |
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297 | |
Ronald C. Arnett is the chair of and a professor in the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University and the Patricia Doherty Yoder and Ronald Wolfe Endowed Chair in Communication Ethics. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, including Communication Ethics in Dark Times: Hannah Arendts Rhetoric of Warning and Hope, which received the 2013 Top Book Award from the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association, and Dialogic Confession: Bonhoeffers Rhetoric of Responsibility, which received the 2006 Everett Lee Hunt Award from the Eastern Communication Association.
