ABSTRACT
Chapter 4, The Early Work, examines Levinas’s early work, specifically Existence and Existents and Time and the Other. A feature of this chapter, as with the book as a whole, is that it also provides some social and historical background to the texts, as well as pointers about how to read and approach the texts. Some of the most important yields from the early work are explained, inclusive of the Il y a, or “there is,” hypostasis, embodiment, solitude, and transcendence. Additionally, the chapter organizes and clearly presents attempts to flee from existence: these include death, nourishment, reason, work, Eros, and fecundity. Throughout the chapter, reference is made to psychological implications of the work, but the chapter also provides a dedicated section to such questions and challenges. Existential and humanistic psychology, especially, are brought into the conversation, as the chapter explores the possibility of a psychological anthropology/ontology to be gathered from the early work.
