ABSTRACT
In order to present Otherness as something that eludes the grasp of the phenomenological method, Levinas must propose an original methodology, one that allows his description to avoid the charges of being either arbitrary or mythological. Historically, there have been two standard ways of relating Levinas to phenomenology. The first is to present Levinas as proposing a kind of paradoxical phenomenology, one that describes phenomena that have no place within the framework of traditional phenomenology. The second option has been to present Levinas as breaking entirely with the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger. In Totality and Infinity, Levinas emphasizes the ontological event represented by the way in which the Face of the Other overwhelms the intentional knowledge of the subject who seeks to discover and reveal the Other in the light of knowledge.
