ABSTRACT

In Edmund Husserl's hands phenomenology is intent on disclosing the symmetrical structure of the lifeworld as constituted by the transcendental ego through a phenomenological 'reduction' which removes alienation from experience. For Husserl, the transition from the 'natural' to the phenomenological 'attitude' must pass through the mediating presence of the body, of both self and other as animated reflections of each other. Both Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas share a concern with otherness and infinity; these terms are central to their pedagogies. Blanchot describes the master/student relationship as a 'relation of infinity', signifying 'a kind of abyss between the point occupied by the master and the point occupied by the disciple'. In Levinas' pedagogical model, the master, to deserve the name, must, through exemplary acts of de-thematization arrive at, or approach, a manner of teaching that infinitizes through pure 'saying'.