Subjectivity and orientation in Levinas and Kant

This essay presents an argument for reconceptualizing subjectivity as orien tational rather than foundational in nature. My focus is on the work of Emm anuel Levinas and Immanuel Kant. I begin by summarizing Levinas's theory of ethical subjectivity as a theory of the self where the internal and the ex ternal are in constant play. Then I turn to two works of Kant for resources to understand better the meaning of Levinas's theory of the self. In 'What is Orientation in Thinking?' Kant presents a model for orientation in thou ght that I make use of as a basic framework for a model of orientational su bjectivity. Then I analyze two feelings described by Kant in the third Crit ique which I argue can be understood as orientational feelings within such a model of orientational subjectivity: the feeling of sensus communis and t he feeling of vocation.