"Faremo e ascolteremo". Il rapporto tra agire e sapere nel pensiero di Emmanuel Levinas

The main focus of this article is the relationship between action and knowledge in philosophical thought and the critical issues related to the prevalence of one over the other. On the one hand, the perspective of ancient ethical intellectualism in which action is subordinate to knowledge does not adequately account for the moral importance of the passions. On the other hand, an opposite prevalence of action over knowledge, as in the case of postmodernism, can lead to nihilistic outcomes (e. g. post-truth ). In this contribution we intend to propose a possible answer through the analysis of Emmanuel Levinas’ thought. His entire reflection aims to affirm the primacy of ethics over ontology, through the face of the Other. This aspect is particularly evident in his commentary to the biblical passage «We will do and we will hear» (Ex 24:7), in which Levinas emphasizes precisely the urgency of an immediate response to the call of the Other. What is the role of knowledge in this perspective? We will show that, far from being devalued, knowledge discovers its ethical inspiration and is guided by it.