The relationship between ethics and politics from the perspective of Emmanuel Levinas in comparison with Aristotle's views

Abstract



To better understand the relationship between ethics and politics in Emmanuel Levinas’s perspective, this study conducts a comparative analysis with Aristotle’s views. In Levinas’s philosophy, by explaining the intersection of “individual responsibility” and “social justice,” the fields of ethics and politics overlap. Levinas, with his unique formulation of ethics, grants it a central role as the first philosophy, basing politics on this particular view of ethics. Thus, justice and politics find meaning through the infinite responsibility of the individual. Aristotle includes both ethics and politics under practical wisdom (phronesis), considering human happiness as a political being (zoon politikon) in the polis, where the pursuit of the highest good (eudaimonia) in the virtuous city-state fosters the individual’s moral growth. This study aims to demonstrate “ethical politics” (politics based on infinite responsibility) in Levinas’s political views and demonstrates “political ethics” (ethics convergent with socio-political happiness) in Aristotle’s moral philosophy, while enumerating their commonalities and differences. The findings can initiate research for a deeper exploration of the ethics-politics nexus, promoting political teleology alongside moral refinement of society.