The grammar of erotic reduction by J.-L. Marion

In this article, we present the origins and methodological implementation of Jean-Luc Marion’s concept of “erotic reduction”. We analyze the convergence between the erotic and religious affections of the embodied subject. Erotic reduction reveals the subject as someone who has been granted with being, who is already endowed with living body, receptive to pleasure and suffering, and open to the other. Marion describes the expression “Here I am!” as the announce of this dimension, referring not only to a biblical quotation, but also to the works of E. Levinas. The article traces the difference between the use of this expression in Levinas and Marion. For Levinas, it marks the moment when the subject emerges in the accusative case, as a subject of vocation and responsibility. For Marion, this expression denotes a subject who discovers the erotic dimension and discovers that their corporeality, their being, and affectivity are assured from other instances. The subject emerges as the subject of both appeal and gift, a subject in the vocative and double dative cases.

Considering the affection with God, we interpret this difference as a difference in the prescribed performance of the description: in Levinas, the expression “Here I am!” functions as a trope, shifting the relationship from God to one’s neighbor or relative. In Marion, it functions as the basis of erotic logic, as an analogy that reveals the logic of mutual gift and double meaning-constitution.

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