In Proximity
On Hilan Bensusan's Indexicalism
Keywords:
Bensusan; Levinas; Joseph Libertson; Joseph Glass; Indexicalism; ProximityAbstract
This paper considers Hilan Bensusan's Indexicalism as a speculative realist take on the philosophy of Emanuel Levinas. I show how Bensusan extends Levinas' encounter with the Other to all perceptual encounters that a situated subject has with multiple other entities, including nonhuman ones. I then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Bensusan's admittedly paradoxical approach. I conclude by considering how Bensusan's account of the asymmetry between the subject and the multiple others who address it relates to Joseph Libertson's account of Levinas, and to the difficult configurations that Libertson explores in his novels written under the pseudonym of Joseph Glass.
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