Souad & Silverman/Subjugated Voices, 6. Surprise! Four Jewish Philosophers’ Views of the ‘Other’: Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas and Arendt

In Emily Leah Silverman’s second chapter, “Surprise! Four Jewish Thinkers’ Views of the ‘Other,’” she contends that Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas, and Hannah Arendt all describe the moment of surprise when one is truly present with and encounters the Other. The major ideas of these Jewish philosophers took shape during the darkest times of the twentieth century with the principal texts of Rosenzweig and Buber emerging in response to World War I and those of Levinas and Arendt to World War II. In this light, we can appreciate poet Karl Wolfskehl’s description of his encounter with a paralyzed, disease-stricken Franz Rosenzweig. The poet’s encounter with Rosenzweig was nothing like what he had imagined. It was a type of “surprise,” which is the primary concept to be examined in this essay. The life narratives of all four philosophers had an impact on how they approached and recognized the Other and realized this moment. Each describes the encounter from a different perspective, which can be demarcated by a notion of time and a structure of language. Yet, they are getting at the same paradoxical moment of experiencing and living in the present, the only moment in which we can truly engage with the Other. This paper chronologically analyzes these four philosophers’ views of the Other and how they all lead to a sense of wonder and surprise.