Divine violence?

radical ethics and politics of nonviolence

pp. 157-169

in: Lenart Škof, Breath of proximity, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

The chapter "Divine Violence? Radical Ethics and Politics of Nonviolence" brings to the fore two recurrences of an idea—as a mode of an ethical temporality within the very relation between politics and ethics. Here we tackle Badiou's and Žižek's ontological claims concerning violence, also accompanied with two complementary remarks on the dissipation of violence. A difficult relation of ethics and politics in Lévinas is also analysed in this context. Against both constellations we argue for another recurrence, which, by excluding the logic of competition or force—which still remains a part of even Lévinas' political legacies—concludes this chapter.