Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

148880

Freedom and command

Emmanuel Levinas

pp. 15-23

Abstract

To command is to act on a will. Among all the forms of doing, to act on a will is to truly act. It is to act on an independent reality, on what does not only offer great resistance, but absolute resistance, resistance of a different order from great resistance. It is not he who labors, that is, moves matter, that we call a man of action, not he who makes war, but he who orders others to labor and to war.

Publication details

Published in:

Levinas Emmanuel (1987) Collected philosophical papers. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 15-23

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-4364-3_2

Full citation:

Levinas Emmanuel (1987) Freedom and command, In: Collected philosophical papers, Dordrecht, Springer, 15–23.