Manuel Levinas's Theory Of The Face

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Levinasian philosophy as the concept of the “ethics of ethics” and explains Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophical concept of the face as a “call and command to ethical action.” These ethical tenets explore the notion of the face in its nudity and defenselessness signifies: “Do not kill me”; furthermore any exemplification of the face's expression carries with it this combination of resistance and defenselessness (Levinias). Although Lévinas' theory of the face bears resemblance to Martin Buber's "I and Thou" relation, Levinias’ focus of the “other” as an asymmetrical relationship that leads us to either “love it or kill it (Levinias 23).” According to Emmanuel Levinias “The face brings a notion of

The Father and the child encounter slaves of other survivors who are killed for food and Paul Bäumer spends and artillery strike with a man whom he killed. The protagonists’ two encounters show the audience the two sides of the face, the gruesome and the glorious. When an enemy foot soldier falls into Paul’s shell hole, Paul “strikes madly at home” and wishes to “stop his mouth, stab him again” but “cannot any more lift [his] a hand against him.” As Paul Bäumer admits that it was his first “time [he] [had] killed with his hands” and becomes truly apologetic as he tries to clean and repair the man’s “three stab wounds” he shows the audience a version of Paul who was never corrupted by war and death. This insight into the psyche Paul Bäumer shows the extraordinarily good circumstances of the face in which the realization can prompt us to virtuousness and compassion. Paul Bäumer’s climaxes as a protagonist when he is at his weakest and most unsure; the audience realizes that Paul is truly shocked to the core as he states that “his hands are white at the knuckles” after the murder. In the hand-to-hand combat, similar to that of Greek epic heroes, Paul Bäumer discovers his hatred of war as he knows that he “did not want to kill [the soldier]” and laments that the masterminds of war “never tell us that you are poor devils like us.” As Paul Bäumer comes to terms with committing the slaughter of the enemy soldier, he begins to realize that there are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for (Camus). Similarly, the Father experiences horrific human brutality, however unlike Paul, the Father did not inflict the pain. As the Father walked down the “ rough wooden steps” and into the “coldness and damp” of the dungeon