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This article aims to uncover the paradoxical meaning of eros in Levinas’ Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority through a close reading and interpretation of part 4, sections A and B of the book. While Totality and Infinity primarily focuses on the life of the subject and the ethical relationship between the subject and the Other, part 4 of the book presents eros as a central philosophical issue that relates to a mode of life in egoism. This serves to introduce fecundity as a catalyst for overcoming a life constrained by finitude. In this context, it is important to note that fecundity cannot occur without first traversing the eros between lovers. According to Levinas, through an erotic relationship, I can bear a child and progress with another into a future time with infinity. A crucial point here is that eros represents a mode of egoistic life fundamentally different from the ethical life; specifically, Levinas expresses that it can be characterized by the egoism of the two. Thus, we can identify that the altruistic life with and for my child can only be animated based on the eros as another mode of egoistic life, paradoxically.
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