Another Finitude

Beginning from the notion of finite life <i>Another Finitude</i> takes this staple subject from post-Heideggerian philosophy and opposes it to the onto-theological concept of infinity represented by an eternal absolute. Although critical of Heidegger and his definition of finitude as 'being-towards-death' this book does not revert to the ontological idea of infinity secured in the sacred image of immortality. But it also does not want to give up on infinity altogether; the infinite is transposed so it can become a necessary moment of the finite life. <br/><br/>A theological framework for the new elaboration of the concept of finitude is crucial; but instead of following the Lutheran formula Agata Bielik-Robson turns to the sources of Judaism. Taking inspiration from the Jewish idea of <i>torat hayim</i> the principle of finite life which found the best expression in the biblical sentence: <i>love strong as death</i>; love emerges as the alternative marker of finitude allowing to us redefine it in an affirmative way. By tracing the avatars of love in the group of 20th-century thinkers or 'messianic vitalists'-Benjamin Rosenzweig Arendt Derrida and (deeply revised) Freud-the book attempts to demonstrate the possibility of such affirmation. Love becomes the new 'infinite-in-the-finite'; love in all its forms from the original libidinal endowment of the human psyche to the last metamorphoses of <i>agape</i> the Greco-Christian divine love.