ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Bergson’s possible influence on Lévinas’ concept of substitution. It begins by quickly tracing Lévinas’ general philosophical approach and his idea of an ethics as first philosophy; this is in order to show how in his thought the relationship between subjectivity and the Other evolved through the years. Against the independent, self-possessed subject of Totality and Infinity, the subject of Otherwise than Being is marked by the idea of substitution, an idea that describes a subject that is constituted by the Other before consciousness. To show how this idea is in conversation with Bergson, the article then discusses the philosophical relationship between the two thinkers, highlighting in particular the influence that the idea of duration had for Lévinas as well as the various critiques Lévinas would level against Bergson. I then look at Bergson’s own idea of substitution as it is developed in Creative Evolution and “The Possible and the Real”. The chapter then ends by showing that Lévinas’ idea of substitution can be read both as an intersubjective re-interpretation of Bergson’s original notion of substitution and also a continuation of his critiques against the Bergsonian determinations of subjectivity and temporality.
