Suggested Topics, Paper #2 – Contemporary Continental Philosophy

1. Explain Levinas' claim that ethics is first philosophy, discussing his claim that ethical responsibility arises from the face to face relation and his argument that this relationship constitutes subjectivity and everything else.

2. Briefly describe Derrida's critique of Levinas in "Violence and Metaphysics." How does Levinas respond, and to what extent is there a shift in his thought?

3. According to Levinas, what is the relationship between ethics and justice? Does his view generate any problems?

4. Compare and contrast Levinas and Derrida's accounts of the other, touching in issues such as the relationship between ethics and justice.

5. According to Derrida, how does ethical and political responsibility arise from the experience of undecidability? What role does the logic of aporia play in undecidability?

6. Discuss Derrida's views on the ethics of hospitality, focussing on the issue of asylum rights for foreigners.

7. Explain Derrida's use of the concepts of difference and repetition: How is the order of the same – the text or the closure of metaphysics – disrupted by the relation to the other?

Requirements: 5-6 pages, 12 point type, double-spaced, page numbers, citations (any standard style), bibliography.