The call in the thought of Lévinas, Marion and Chrétien

Abstract

Setting out from an analysis of the notion of the call in the works of Lévinas and his adherents, my task will be to show how that which is presented as description of a phenomenon is in fact the deconstruction of the text of tradition. In order to accomplish this, it will be apposite first to carry out an overview of the uses of the notion of the call in order to flesh out its recurring constants; subsequently, it will become possible to demonstrate the ways in which description is entirely dependent on a prerequisite act of deconstruction. That phenomenological description should thus be dependent on deconstruction explains why, in all theses texts, the notion of the call is a description of trauma which cannot account for all the dimensions of the call—such as the artistic dimension of the call exemplified by Alberti and analysed here through the example of Carvaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew.