The first things to remember about the face-to-face encounter between the self and the other person are that it is concrete and particular. It is not an idea or concept nor a type of action or event. It is a concrete reality, an occurrent event; it occurs. Furthermore, it occurs as utterly particular: The self is a particular person, and the face-of-the-other is a particular revelation of a particular person. What is occluded, hidden, or forgotten in our ordinary lives is not some idea or value; it is this presence of the other's face to me – and my responsibility to and for this person. What we have lost sight of, Levinas says, are this woman's responsibility and this man's suffering. Moreover, this reality or event, which in a sense is beyond our thinking, our concepts, and our rules and prior to them, is determinative and unconditional. It is all plea and command, made again and again, in episode after episode. It is not like the continuing echoes of a single clash that occurred some time in the past; it is more like a pervasive din, always present without an initial crash or origin.

What does the face reveal? Why is its content ethical? How does Levinas clarify and argue for this content? What does the face mean? Is its meaning absolute?