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(1987) Collected philosophical papers, Dordrecht, Springer.
To command is to act on a will. Among all the forms of doing, to act on a will is to truly act. It is to act on an independent reality, on what does not only offer great resistance, but absolute resistance, resistance of a different order from great resistance. It is not he who labors, that is, moves matter, that we call a man of action, not he who makes war, but he who orders others to labor and to war.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-4364-3_2
Full citation:
Levinas, E. (1987). Freedom and command, in Collected philosophical papers, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 15-23.
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