CLOSING RANKS BEHIND POSTMODERN THOUGHT: A REVIEW OF LEVINAS, ADORNO AND ZYGMUNT BAUMAN FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ETHICS

Abstract

The comparative study of Emmanuel Levinas and Theodore Adorno has received much attention in the past few years. The general consensus is that Levinas and Adorno, while sharing some similarities, are intrinsically different. This paper is an attempt to reinvestigate Levinas-Adorno axis from the standpoint of postmodern thought. Defined by Simon During as the thought that refuses to turn the other to the same, postmodern thought is imbued with an antagonism toward totalizing trends. At the same time such hostility to totalization contains ethical overtones analogous to Levinasian ethics. By introducing the ethical implications of this thought, the paper seeks to emphasize that Adorno’s critique of enlightenment overlaps with postmodern thought and Levinasian ethics in its repudiation of totalizing tendencies of Western thought. The concluding section of this paper aims to briefly explore the aggregate impact of Levinas and Adorno on Zygmunt Bauman who like his mentors is interested in decrying the de-sensitizing outcome of cleaving to instrumental rationality and order-creating in modernity.