Heidegger and Levinas

Levinas' concept of 'Ethics' directly challenges Heidegger's devaluation of the notion as merely subjectivistic. The explicit context of the challenge is Phenomenological methodology, which, according to Levinas, does not distinguish things and persons, while the subtext is that of a French Jew confronting a German Nazi. In the process, Levinas, as much as Heidegger himself, loses sight of a problem that Being and Time proposes to correct, namely, that of losing oneself in the anonymity of the crowd. Consequently, any corrective to that loss is recognized by neither as an 'Ethical' principle. But, to classify such a principle as 'Ethical' is not necessarily an endorsement of Egoism. Rather, it can be to accept its role within Experience as a principle that is complementary to that which promotes the extending of oneself towards others, i. e. the promotion of a process which has tended to escape the notice of Phenomenologists, in general.