ONTOLOGY AS THE CYCLICAL THINKING

Abstract

In opposition to the founder of phenomenology Edmund Husserl, who claimedthat Plato’s thinking should be recognized as paradigmatic for the all-encompassing rationalityand genuine social ethics, Levinas identifi es in Plato’s ontology the fatal suspension of authentichumanity. Interpretation of the antic ontologist by Levinas culminated in insight that Husserl,similar to the majority of interpretative approaches to Plato after Hegel, overlooked a pagan originof the constitution of ontology. If we accept that the concept of being was deeply platonized, asLevinas’ teacher in philosophy Rosenzweig claimed, does it mean that the true ontology could bemade possible only after we break with the pagan heritage? The core of Levinas’ critique is builton indications that rationality of ontology consists in the transcendence of the self for the sakeof identity with the eternal forms, which stabilizes both the thoughts and the thinkers. From thisperspective, Plato appears as the thinker whose ontology is nothing else but the constitution of thecyclical thinking. The second part of the article discusses the limits of Levinas’ critique, keeping inmind his idea regarding the possibilities of the reconciliation of »Athens« with »Jerusalem«.