TY - THES ID - 135961817 TI - The Ethics of Narrative : Emmanuel Levinas on Plurality, Time and Creativity AU - Fisher, Jacob AU - De Warren, Nicolas AU - KU Leuven. Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte. Opleiding Master of Philosophy PY - 2014 PB - Leuven : K.U. Leuven. Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:135961817 AB - How do I relate to times which are entirely before and after my experience? 'Other times' are the originof novelty and Other people originate the language I employ to experience that novelty. By way ofapplication: what narrative theory can I derive from this philosophy of time? 1) The otherness of timeand of Other people is the origin of creativity. 2) The desire for more narrative is insatiable. 3) I ammorally responsible for the narratives I tell.In this close reading of Emmanuel Levinas's seminal 1961 essay Totality and Infinity, I seek tounderstand the effect his radical ethics has upon the philosophy of time. He does not explicitly set out atheory of time, but it is one of the primary phenomenon he uses to elucidate his ethics. Anyinterpretation of his ethics that fails to give an account of his philosophy of time has missed the essenceof his thesis. Because his philosophy of time is more implied than stated, my interpretation isnecessarily constructive. My secondary task is more constructive yet: I attempt to extract from hisphilosophy of time a narrative theory. Narrative serves three roles in my thesis. The first is interpretive:narrative provides a set of vocabulary to translate Levinas into a more widely applicable language. Thesecond is heuristic: narrative stands as a concrete phenomenon to which I can apply Levinas's radicalethics. The third is philosophical: I wish to formulate my own original theory of narrative. Thelimitation of space requires that I only provide a sketch of Levinas's importance for a narrative theory.I interpret Levinas's philosphy of time in three steps. The first is foundational. I outline thefundamental intention of Levinas's project and elicit the methodological approach which his ethicsimplies. He promotes a ethics of plurality rather than a philosophy of universality. The methodologicaleffect is that abstraction moves from particulars to pluralities (instead of universals). The secondconsequence is that the ethics he writes... ER -