Abstract

In the scheme of Totality and Infinity the face of other people is understood as the face of all faces. However, this is not the case in Otherwise than Being, in which a third party is not only the Other than the other, but an Other of the other. The intervention of justice is required where justice has made room only for substitution. When it takes place, the unique and incomparable superimpose themselves on the comparison between the Other and the third party in order to achieve equity or equality. In the same way the institutions and the State itself can be rediscovered setting out from a third party intervening in the relation of proximity in Levinas. This recourse to a political-institutional order leads us to wonder : what type of State are we dealing with in Levinas ? The aim of this article is to reflect on this question that is implicit in the philosopher's thought (transl. J. Dudley).