ABSTRACT
ASSUMPTIONS The avoir of the impersonal il y a, the having (compare Heidegger’s hat) of the anonymous there-is, becomes contracted to a point of focus (foyer) the instant there exists a solitary monad that, although still possessing no door and no windows, possesses itself and a name. It possesses itself because it possesses no doors and no windows. For its self-possession is a turning in on itself. And this possession of itself is a being possessed by itself. At the birth of the instant the existant is preoccupied by the existence (with) which it has contracted. Preoccupied, obsessed, con-cerned. If one is to remain in touch with what Levinas will be going on to say, it is important to grasp from the beginning the preposterousness of his analysis of the beginning.
