Death as the limit and experience of the subject’s passivity Issues surrounding freedom

Distancing himself from proposals to control death so as not to be destabilized, Levinas emphasizes that death brings to light the deeply vulnerable dimension of the human being. Death heralds a profound anthropological reversal, that of the subject’s activity in his own passivity and of the subject’s control in his own receptivity and openness to otherness. Death finally reveals an understanding of human freedom that is characterized by availability and gift.