Ethics of Visuality

Hagi Kenaan is Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. He works in the areas of continental philosophy, phenomenology, aesthetics and the philosophy of art. He is the author of The Present Personal: Philosophy and the Hidden Face of Language (Columbia University Press, 2005) and co-editor of Philosophy's Moods: The Affective Grounds of Thinking (Springer 2011).

An excellent book. The questions it asks are most acute and they renew the analysis of the question of the Face in Levinas's philosophy, which is quite an achievement. Dr Hagi Kenaan is not content with explaining the main lines of Levinas's thought on the Face, he proposes a fine phenomenological approach of what it means "to see" in general and what it means to see a Face in particular, while giving concrete examples which is a very good pedagogical approach too. His knowledge of the different phenomenological philosophers is excellent and he refers to them in a most appropriate way. His analysis of the act of speaking (dibour) and of its subtle and necessary link to the Face, is also very well done. I also want to underline Dr Hagi Kenaan's qualities of explanations and rational deductions in his book. This is a fine and clever book. Professor Catherine Chalier, Professor of Philosophy, University of Paris X- Nanterre Kenaan's brilliant study reveals what Levinas' 'ethical turn' has to teach us about the ethical potential of the visual. His study offers nothing less than a guide for restoring us to an ethics of vision in our postmodern world. It is an urgent, compelling and, ultimately, hopeful work. Martin Berger, Professor and Chair, History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California at Santa Cruz. The Ethics of Visuality is an extraordinary achievement. The author offers a brilliant meditation not only on Levinas' thought but also through it, engaging and going beyond it, culminating in profound insights. It is a must-read for anyone seriously interested not only in visuality but also in the very condition of what it means to speak with responsibility about appearance. Lewis R. Gordon, Professor of Philosophy, African American Studies and Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut at Storrs and author of Disciplinary Decadence.

• ContentsPreface: The Rule of the Frontal Ethics is an Optics: Preliminary Remarks Face 1: The Gleam of Infinity Face 2: How a Face LooksFace 3: Face and ObjectFace 4: Why A Face, All of a SuddenFace 5: Vision, Gaze, OtherFace 6: Face and ResistanceFace 7: OutsideTalk 1The Face of Language Talk 2Expression Talk 3The First Word Talk 4Saying and BetrayingTalk 5Word, Window, Screen Talk 6Listening to a Big BirdTalk 7The Open References