摘要：Longing for the Other: Levinas and Metaphysical Desire (Duquesne University Press, 2009) began with a rather simple question of what to make of that unusual claim which plays such a central role in Levinas' philosophy: his identification of a metaphysical desire at work within the ethical predicament. I sought to answer this question by tracing the genealogy of Levinas' thought from his read of Plato on eros (chapter 1), through his re-interpretation of Descartes' idea of the infinite and the German Idealists account of longing ( sehnsucht) (chapters 3 and 4) and terminating finally in his critical differentiation from Heidegger (chapter 2 and 5). It was my goal in doing so not only to un-pack what appears to be a concept in Levinas' account of the ethical life of the subject, but, moreover, to illuminate our own existential experience of desire in relation to the question of otherness
