Levinas, Emmanuel

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Levinas' best work, but not easy to understand
otherwise than self
The Otherwise than Being

Otherwise Than Being: Or Beyond Essence
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: Duquesne University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Time and the Other
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ASIN: 0820702994

Customer Reviews:

Levinas' best work, but not easy to understand.......2005-03-30

Much though I am fascinated with Levinas, I do find it nearly unreadable. His text is so dense, it requires (but definitely merits) slow reading.

Although it might be helpful to have read earlier Levinas, this book takes a bit of a departure from the philosophy he espoused in his younger days. I don't believe it is such a radical departure so much as a reorientation and increased sophistication, but that's a topic for another discussion!

I highly recommend this read if you are familiar with phenomenology, particulary Husserl and Heidegger, and Kant. I believe they are essential to understanding his arguments.

If you are willing to put in the time and mental effort to unpack this, it is a very rewarding book. For some additional explanation, a good companion is Beyond by Peperzak.

otherwise than self.......2000-10-22

"Otherwise Than Being" is one of the only metaphysical text that seriously revise and rehabilitate the notion of the subject after Heidegger's deconstruction and critique of it. Proposing a "de-nucleated" subject, a subject that is non-indifferent to the other, Emmanuel Levinas continues the intuitions he first draw in "Totality and Infinity". But rather than simply continue directly and without revision the acquisitions of "Totality and Infinity", Levinas integrates Derrida's critique (drawn in his important article on Levinas,"Violence and Metaphysics") of the still to ontological/phenomenological discourse of "Totality and Infinity". Therefore, in "Otherwise than Being", his second Masterpiece, Levinas is developing a completely new style, a radically new way-of-thinking. Being not committed anymore neither to phenomenology nor to ontology, Levinas offers us an exercise of post-heidegerrian metaphysics that doesn't fall under the critique of philosophy as onto-theo-logy. The pre-original dimension of psychism, the an-archic dimension of the Self, or subjectivity as "other-in-the-Self" are themes breaking the classical metaphysical discourse without abandoning the primacy of the subject, or of ethics. Finally, "Otherwise than Being" is the first important challenge to Nietzsche's parricide, the first (and maybe only) text that tries to re-hear the authentic signification of the word (or name?): God.

The Otherwise than Being.......1999-05-16

This title deals with the otherwise than. A true masterpiece of the pre-ontological and ontological discouse which not only binds self to Other (through an asymetric responsibility--see substition) but also uncovers and builds off the earlier work of Heidegaar.

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Brings a fresh approach to both Talmud study and Philosophy
When philosophy meets Talmud
A Philosopher Reads The Talmud

Nine Talmudic Readings
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
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ASIN: 0253208769

Customer Reviews:

Brings a fresh approach to both Talmud study and Philosophy.......2006-05-15

This is the book that's noted for the famous quote about how we might be able to forgive some Nazis but never Heidigger. And while that's a great line, it's even more profound in the context of a story about a rabbi that didn't begin teaching again for the last late student - a seemingly inocuous action that had great consequences. While the traditional interpretation (rabbis have greater learning and leadership roles and therefore greater responsibilities) is in line with Levinas' argument, his invocation of Heidigger at once makes the Talmud contemporary and profound.

Every one of his readings of the Talmudic passages (and note that these are aggadic passages. Levinas is humble enough to understand that many better and more learned philosophers have mined the halacha) illuminates the Talmud and the contemporary society, showing how the Talmud is still a revolutionary text despite its long history. Of course, the methodology that he uses and his conclusions are great for those that have no Jewish learning.

I read this book when I was first contemplating a conversion to Judaism and while it spoiled me for some methods of learning, it definitely gave me enough learning to see that I was on the right track. Anyhow, I could gush forever on the importance of this book, but suffice it to say that you should buy it.

When philosophy meets Talmud.......2006-04-07

Emmanuel Levinas' ethical philosophy is also becoming more known in North America lately - he is very popular in Europe and Israel. He received a "good Jewish education" as a child but was no yeshiva boy. After he moved to France and studied with Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger he developed after WWII his ethical philosophy. At the same time he started to learn Talmud with the mysterious Mr. Chouchani. The combination of his original philosophical thought with his knowledge of Talmud became popular topic of a number of lectures that finally became part of this book. For someone who has never encountered the Talmud it might be difficult to follow his reading and understand some of his original interpretations. It is a very fine example of how to give an ethical reading of an ancient text and make it meaningful for our time.
In the Indian University Press edition of 1994 some of the "page" quotes referring to the Talmudic passages are incorrect which is irritating.

A Philosopher Reads The Talmud.......2002-06-16

Emmanual Levinas (1906-95) was a contintental philosopher, credited with introducing the thinking of Husserl and Heidegger to France. He was raised in the Lithuanian Jewish community, however, and that heritage became increasingly important to him in the 1930s, culminating in his study of the Talmud following WWII. The nine lectures collected in this volume were originally delivered by Levinas between 1963 and 1975. In the guise of commentaries on specific passages of Talmud, these lectures represent Levinas' attempt to "translate" the values and the concerns of the Talmud into the terms of 20th Century phenomenological discourse.

Levinas' main concern is with the ethical aspect of Judaism, and the universal role it (in its specificity) plays. Each lecture begins with a passage from the Talmud, which Levinas interprets line-by-line. Although the interpretation often strays far afield from the plain meaning (and even, sometimes, beyond the symbolic or didactic meaning) of the passage under consideration, I do not think that the rabbis would disagree with Levinas' conclusions. Most of the lectures ultimately turn to one's radical responsibility to and for the other. It is not enough to be good oneself: "the righteous are responsible for evil before anyone else is. They are responsible because they have not been righteous enough to make their justice spread and abolish injustice." (186) Levinas' interpretation of the story of the Gibeonites is particularly thought-provoking in these times: the Gibeonites demanded talion (a life for a life) for the wrongs done to them by Saul; in doing so, by failing to show mercy toward the other, they excluded themselves from Israel.

Although I found much to think about in these lectures and may reread them, they are *not* easy to follow and are often written in the almost impenatrable prose of 20th Century continental philosophy. The translator, Annette Aronowicz, provides a very useful introduction to Levinas, his thought in general, and what he is attempting to do in these lectures, but even with the introduction, I would not recommend this to someone who has no familiarity with philosophical discussion. Familiarity with the Talmud is not required.

Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority (Philosophical Series)
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Totality and Infinity--extremely hard, but also fulfilling

One of the Great Books

Your Time

difficult - so important

deconstructing Levinas

Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority (Philosophical Series)
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: Duquesne University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0820702455

Customer Reviews:

Totality and Infinity--extremely hard, but also fulfilling.......2006-03-20

I only read parts of Totality and Infinity, but I found Levinas extremely hard and rewarding. His insights in the book are helpful to everyday life, and they've changed my world view altogether. read it, but preferably with someone else who is reading it, too, or have someone else who has read it help you.

One of the Great Books.......2006-03-16

To previous reviewers:

~ Levinas is trying to uncover the source of the idea of infinity ~

No, infinity by definition is boundless and cannot be encompassed or reduced. Levinas is not asking the Cartesian question nor concerned with securing the `existence' of the external world. The concept of infinity is unique in that its content always exceeds or overflows its concept. Ethical relation operates in just this manner: the relation to the other is not negative (ala Idealism) but rather a relation to an excess. This excess is no Hinterwelt, but rather goodness.

~ Then he proceeds to "show" that the face to face relation with the Other is the source for our capacity to have theoretical and practical knowledge. ~

Indeed. Though the term `source' is very problematic. Levinas shows theoretical and practical `knowledge' - science and law/politics - are fundamentally social. In this way, the ethical relation opens and conditions this `knowledge,' while always exceeding it. What if science claimed to discover that women were `inferior' to men? We would no doubt question the `truth' of this discovery. Why? Because such a claim seems to exceed the bounds of what scientific activity can produce. This example shows how ethics exceeds theoretical knowledge. The same goes for the `practical.' Why do we think that segregation is wrong or unjust? Why is excluding the `other' from basic political participation, and the responsibility and rights it entails, a problem? Political theory and practice, which in its way is a kind of `scientific ethics,' can also lead to problematic situations. How are we able to judge or discern or resist claims that seek to justify unethical attitudes and practices? The face-to-face is Levinas's attempt to grapple with this perennial problem.

~ Oh yeah, the Other is a man, because the feminine other is not Other enough for Levinas, and romantic love is bad. ~

The problem of the feminine in Levinas is a real issue. Yet only a reductive and amateurish reading would pose the problem in these blunt terms. "The Other is man" and not women, is false according to any close reading of Levinas's texts. It is true that Levinas implicitly treats gender with a patriarchal slant, yet it is also true that he complicates and problematizes the way gendered is valued. There is a running debate on this within feminist camps. The more thoughtful and rigorous feminists realize the complexity and nuanced structural problems within Levinas's thinking of the feminine. Even if we admit that there is an undeniable patriarchal aspect in Levinas's work, we must also admit that he subverts that same patriarchy from within his own work. Here we may possibly oppose Levinas to Levinas. (Check out Tine Chanter's essay in `Addressing Levinas'). Oh ya, `romantic love is bad'?? Go read `Phenomenology of Eros' more carefully.

~Essentially, what he does is fuse Husserl and Heidegger's theories, to an extent, and replaces the transcendental ego of Husserl with the face to face relation with the Other.~

This sounds like a bad regurgitation of certain of Levinas's critics. The more precise way to put it is this: Levinas plays Heidegger's anti-scientism against Husserl, and Husserl's anti-historicism and relativism against Heidegger. There is a certain sense where the other displaces Husserl's T-Ego, in terms of its structural function. Yet Levinas is not after absolute knowledge, and `replacing' the ego with alterity precisely disturbs and relativizes - in fact renders impossible - constitution.

~ Levinas is just intentionally writing obscurely, perhaps because he realizes how silly his whole enterprise is and how much modernism is contained within it (still trying to find the condition for experience itself, did someone say German Idealism?).~

This comment shows the extent of our reviewer's ignorance. 1st: Levinas's entire project is one the most rigorous and non-reductive challenges to the Idealist tradition from Fichte to Husserl. Levinas's project is precisely a critique of the modernist project to secure absolute foundations. He ever retained an allergy to G-Idealism and saw within its totalizing logic the seeds of Auschwitz. 2nd: The claim that Levinas intentionally wrote obscurely betrays intellectual laziness and a certain chauvinism. A simple survey of Levinas's contemporaries, French philosophy of the mid-20th century, shows that Levinas is writing within a specific intellectual culture and style. Continental philosophy in general tends to be more difficult for us Anglophones in that we are socialized into an instrumental and minimalist stylistic culture. One need only read Hegel, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, or Derrida to the see the extent in which Levinas is operating within a certain tradition and style of philosophy.

Finally, the following suggestion by the above reviewer can help us understand Levinas's basic point:

~ you would be better served by spending 3 hours contemplating and reasoning to your own working definition of the following words: --- "totality" --- "infinity" --- "other"
Then spend 3 hours contemplating and reasoning to your own understanding of how the three are interrelated.~

As you sit `contemplating' your definitions, imagine you are right on the cusp of a new idea that will refute Levinas and bring you philosophic immortality. All of a sudden, a frantic bang on your door jars you. You open the door and there stands your neighbor with blood running down his face. He explains that while he was sitting watching water flow over rocks (while contemplating Aristotle); a tree branch fell on his head. You immediately begin to help your neighbor: bandages, ice, call the ambulance, and so forth. By the time the ordeal is over, you have forgotten the specifics of you idea and must start all over.

The supplicating demand of the other interrupts all self activity, rendering our clarity and certainty and sedentary contemplation secondary and relative. No matter how grand and all encompassing our ideas become, there always remains an exterior: an other who bangs on the door needing help; whom we feel obliged to help even if the don't agree with our ideas, even if they are stupid, confused, and so forth. This knock on the door is not another `meaning,' idea, world, or theory, not another term to be defined or explained. The knock on the door is the face of the other that needs and demands whether or not our theory or definition justifies it.

Totality and Infinity is, no doubt, one of the Great Books.

Your Time.......2005-11-13

I have to confess I didn't get very far with this one. If you have to read this for a course, I'm very sorry.

I'm not an academic, but I do I read a lot of philosophy. I'll put a lot of energy into a complex text, but I prefer to invest it with works that will enlighten, not confuse.

On the clarity-precision scale, I would push Levinas right past "dense" or "challenging" and put it somewhere between "turgid" and "impenetrable." (His apologists decry the inability of human language to convey Levinas' sophisticated thoughts. Maybe so, but perhaps the apology says more about his thoughts than it does about human language.)

In any case, it will take you a long time to genuinely read this book. If you're looking for truth (as opposed to a passing grade in a required course), you would be better served by spending 3 hours contemplating and reasoning to your own working definition of the following words:

--- "totality"
--- "infinity"
--- "other"

Then spend 3 hours contemplating and reasoning to your own understanding of how the three are interrelated.

Then get a decent translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics. (I like the McKeon translation, but there are certainly newer, hipper ones.) Then read Aristotle instead of Levinas. If you find the idea of reading a Dead White Guy repugnant, spend the time watching water move over rocks. Either choice will provide you more wisdom than you could get from a lifetime studying An Essay on Exteriority.

difficult - so important.......2004-09-05

Yeah, this is hard to read. Yes, it is worth it. Levinas stands tall in a tradition that embraces the flux and rejects the totalizing tendencies of modernity. Totality and Infinity was a powerful influence on Derrida, can be seen as a parrallel to Heidegger's Essay Concerning the Question of Technology, and certainly repesents a powerful attempt at post-metaphysical ethics.
Levinas points out the egology, the self and family centered closedness that does violence on many scales. In a time when there seems to be unconditional heralding of freedom, Levinas points out the violence of freedom and encourages responsibility. Regardless of how effective one finds his arguments, I think the attitude and way of being Levinas is describing is one that would make life much fuller and less driven by inertia and ignorence.
Infinitely important (pun), highly recommended.

deconstructing Levinas.......2004-08-15

Here is a summary of the argument contained in this book:

Levinas is trying to uncover the source of the idea of infinity, which he decides cannot come from "totality" and must come from something that cannot be "totalized." He decides that it must come from the face to face relation with the Other, since neither the Other nor the face to face relation can be totalized. Then he proceeds to "show" that the face to face relation with the Other is the source for our capacity to have theoretical and practical knowledge. Oh yeah, the Other is a man, because the feminine other is not Other enough for Levinas, and romantic love is bad. Essentially, what he does is fuse Husserl and Heidegger's theories, to an extent, and replaces the transcendental ego of Husserl with the face to face relation with the Other.

Yeah, forgive me if I don't think this guy is as profound as the other reviewers. And Levinas is not having problems getting his point across because of the "ontological" nature of the language he is using (an explanation that came from Derrida, not Levinas nor the other reviewers). Levinas is just intentionally writing obscurely, perhaps because he realizes how silly his whole enterprise is and how much modernism is contained within it (still trying to find the condition for experience itself, did someone say German Idealism?).

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An early but central exposition of L.'s ethical metaphysics.

Time and the Other
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: Duquesne University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Alterity and Transcendence

ASIN: 0820702331

Customer Reviews:

An early but central exposition of L.'s ethical metaphysics........1998-02-04

TIME AND THE OTHER was first presented as a series of lectures in 1946/47 at the College Philosophique, in the intellectually charged atmosphere of post-war Paris. Along with EXISTENCE AND EXISTENTS it represents the first book length formulation of Levinas's own philosophy of ethical metaphysics. It is not only a clear statement of his thought but is focused on the central issue of modern and contemporary philsopohy: the meaning and role of time. This volume also includes two important articles by Levinas on time, "The Old and the New" (1980) and "Diachrony and Representation" (1983). Reviewed by Richard A. Cohen (translator)

Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation

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Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation
Leora Batnitzky
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 052186156X

Book Description

Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas, two twentieth-century Jewish philosophers and two extremely provocative thinkers whose reputations have grown considerably over the last twenty years, are rarely studied together. This is due to the disparate interests of many of their intellectual heirs. Strauss has influenced political theorists and policy makers on the right while Levinas has been championed in the humanities by different cadres associated with postmodernist thought. In Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation, Leora Batnitzky brings together these two seemingly incongruous contemporaries, demonstrating that they often had the same philosophical sources and their projects had many formal parallels. While such a comparison is valuable in itself for better understanding each figure, it also raises profound questions in the current debate on the definitions of ‘religion’, suggesting new ways that religion makes claims on both philosophy and politics.

Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings (Studies in Continental Thought)

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A Good Reader Long-Overdue

Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings (Studies in Continental Thought)
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Time and the Other
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ASIN: 0253210798

Customer Reviews:

A Good Reader Long-Overdue.......1998-07-17

*Basic Philosophical Writings* is the first Levinas essay anthology since *Collected Philosophical Papers." Drs. Pepperzak, Crichtly and Bernasconi write wonderful introductions and great notes (even those that Levinas never wrote). An excellent anthology and very textbook-oriented. A must-buy for Levinas scholars!

Proper Names (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)

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Best for those already familiar with Levinas' work.

Proper Names (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0804723524

Book Description

Combining elements from Heidegger’s philosophy of “being-in-the-world” and the tradition of Jewish theology, Levinas has evolved a new type of ethics based on a concept of “the Other” in two different but complementary aspects. He describes his encounters with those philosophers and literary authors (most of them his contemporaries) whose writings have most significantly contributed to the construction of his own philosophy of “Otherness”: Agnon, Buber, Celan, Delhomme, Derrida, Jabès, Kierkegaard, Lacroix, Laporte, Picard, Proust, Van Breda, Wahl, and, most notably, Blanchot.

At the same time, Levinas’s own texts are inscriptions and documents of those encounters with “Others” around which his philosophy is turning. Thus the texts simultaneously convey an immediate experience of how his intellectual position emerged and how it is put into practice. A third potential function of the book is that it unfolds the network of references and persons in philosophical debates since Kierkegaard.

Customer Reviews:

Best for those already familiar with Levinas' work........2001-08-28

Proper Names is a fascinating collection of essays previously available only in French. The pieces range from discussions of ethical, philosophical and theological questions in the work of Buber, Max Picard, Proust, Derrida and, especially, Maurice Blanchot. These works will be of interest to anyone who is already familiar with the extraordinary work of Emmanuel Levinas, who is, in my mind, one of the most important and original thinkers of the 20th century. The texts allow one to watch Levinas engaged in acts of response/responsibility to and for the Other within the framework of his own ethical system. It is my experience that, if one is concerned with the possibility of ethics after Hegel or, more precisely, Heidegger, everything that Levinas wrote is worth reading. However, if one is not already acquainted with this writer, one should start elsewhere. Infinity and Totality is the best starting point, but The Levinas Reader and Otherwise than Being (the more difficult of these three works) are better starting points.

Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism (Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies)

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Levinas attitude to Judaism
A collection highly memorable and engaging
difficult to read, perhaps, but will open up new worlds!

Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism (Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies)
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Jean Paul Sartre hailed him as the philosopher who introduced France to Husserl and Heidegger. Derrida has paid him homage as "master." An original philosopher who combines the insights of phenomenological analysis with those of Jewish spirituality, Emmanuel Levinas has proven to be of extraordinary importance in the history of modern thought. Collecting Levinas's important writings on religion, Difficult Freedom contributes to a growing debate about the significance of religion -- particularly Judaism and Jewish spiritualism -- in European philosophy. Topics include ethics, aesthetics, politics, messianism, Judaism and women, and Jewish-Christian relations, as well as the work of Spinoza, Hegel, Heidegger, Franz Rosenzweig, Simone Weil, and Jules Issac.

Customer Reviews:

Levinas attitude to Judaism.......2006-04-07

Emmanuel Levinas came from an orthodox Lithuanian background but left for France in the 1930' to study with Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger in Germany. In time he developed his ethical theory of "The Other" for which Levinas is famous today. He remained an observant Jew all his life but seperated strictly his involvement in the Jewish community with his academic life as professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne. He even published his "Jewish" books with a different publisher than his "philosophical" books. "Difficult Freedom" is a collection of his view on a variety of topics concerning Judaism, Zionism, Israel, God and is a fascinating read.

A collection highly memorable and engaging.......2000-05-01

Emmanuel Levinas takes Jewish thought to new levels, adding very new, yet very ancient ways of thinking into his works. He has several highly recognized works in the philosphy world- "Time and the Other", amd "Existence and Existents", but his works that build directly off of Jewish thought (such as this one) are my favorites. He manages to cut through the shell of everything and shed a beautiful yet heavy light on life.... I think it would be more fitting to put a Levinas quotes from Difficult Freedom in this review, and let you see for yourself.

"At the dawning of the new world, Judaism has the consciousness to possess, through its permanence, a function in the general economy of Being. No one can replace it. Someone has to exist in the world who is as old as the world. For Judaism, the great migrations of the people , the migrations among the people and the upheavals of history have never presented a deadly threat. It always found what remained to it. It has a painful experience of living on; its performance accustomed it to judging history and refusing to accept the verdict of a History that that proclaimed itself judge. Perhaps Jewish thought in general consists today in holding on more firmly than ever to this permanence and this eternity. Judaism has traversed history history without taking up history's causes. It has the power to judge, alone against all, the victory of visible and organized forces - if need be in order to reject them. Its head may be held high or its head may be down, but it is always stiff-necked. This temerity and this patience, which are as long as eternity itself, will perhaps be more necessary to humanity tomorrow or the day after tomorrow than they were yesterday or the day before." Difficult Freedom, p.166

difficult to read, perhaps, but will open up new worlds!.......1998-08-25

Several essays on Jewish issues and a brief and quirky, incomplete autobiography of Levinas, perhaps the finest thinker in post-modern Jewish philosophy. In this little volume are commentaries on Biblical and talmudic material, thoughts about current philosophical trends, what it means to be a Jew in the modern and post-holocaust world by a thoughtful survivor, and his unique wordplay. This book will shake your assumptions to their foundations. Never a casual read, but amazing to study.

Ethics and Infinity: Conversations With Philippe Nemo

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Easy introduction to a difficult thinker
excellent and Sublime!
The Generousity of a Great Mind
Levinas in a Nutshell
It is a brilliant introduction to Levinas' other works.

Ethics and Infinity: Conversations With Philippe Nemo
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: Duquesne University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0820701785

Customer Reviews:

Easy introduction to a difficult thinker.......2006-04-07

This is as easy to read (and understand) as Levinas can be. It is short and in the form of an interview. If you are just looking for a broad concept of what he is all about - this is a great book. It gives you a nice overview on his major points and from there on you might want to explore some of his more challenging works.

excellent and Sublime!.......2004-06-07

An exceptionally lucid series of interviews with one of the most central, misunderstood and neglected thinkers of the 20th C. If you are looking to take a quick dip in the work of Levinas (something that may not be possible) I would council you to pick this up, it is the most easily accesible book to attempt a (cursory) look at some of Levinas' key points. The questions are interesting and (more importantly) not trivial... Levinas's responses are succint but also thorough and searching. I found this much more rewarding and illuminating than some of his more weighty tomage.

Good for recovering academics, practicing theorists, intellectual dilletantes and anyone else interested in adopting an ethically based philosophy that can stand up and go toe to toe with all those wily postmodernists with their impenetrable and convoluted jargon of hubris...

The Generousity of a Great Mind.......2002-06-13

Emmanuel Levinas' books and articles are famously difficult reading, both because of their depth and because their themes, proposals and obessions manage to be breathtakingly against the grain of modernity and, simultaneously, postmodernity. This little book shows Levinas to be not only a great philosopher but also a good one--that is, an author genuinely concerned for his audience. In these transcribed interviews first broadcast on Radio-France, we meet Levinas the generous conversation partner who engages each question in a way that makes fresh understanding possible. Overhearing this conversation is the shortest route to a basic orientation to this wonderfully disorienting thinker.

Levinas in a Nutshell.......2001-05-05

The influence of Levinas on Contemporary thought cannot be under-estimated. Many of the subtle and overt nuances in Derrida, Nancy, Deleuze and, on this side of the Atlantic, Lingis and Caputo, derive from Levinasian insights. Indeed, the French reverence for difference and alterity has its origin in the phenomenological findings of Levinas.

With Levinas comes a dramatic shift from the Heideggarian cum Greek privilege of ontology. As levinas suggests, prior to any investigation of Being we first encounter the Other. And it is this encounter with the other that commands me - a command whose first words are 'Thou shalt not kill'. Thus it is ethics that is first philosophy.

This description, its reasons and implications, are many and complex. However, this wonderful little book gives a breadth and clarity that should prove invaluable to the scholar and dilettante alike. Nemo's questions are poignant and Levinas' responses are clear, precise and exhibit a genuine gentility and articulateness that is most apreciated in philosophical writings.

In addition this book is a wonderful accompaniment to Levinas' two main texts: Totality and Infinity and Otherwise than Being.

It is a brilliant introduction to Levinas' other works........1999-02-12

Levinas is one of the finest thinkers to step out of philosophy since Soren Kierkegaard. With this book and his interviews with Nemo, the reader can gain a basic understanding that will urge (h)er further along the trace that Levinas leaves in the history of thought. Read this book, and be drawn into thinking of the Other.

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A word of warning--you may already own this book

Humanism of the Other
Emmanuel Levinas
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0252073266

Book Description

In Humanism of the Other, Emmanuel Levinas argues that it is not only possible but of the highest exigency to understand one's humanity through the humanity of others. Based in a new appreciation for ethics, and taking new distances from the phenomenology of Hegel, Heidegger, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty, the idealism of Plato and Kant, and the skepticism of Nietzsche and Blanchot, Levinas rehabilitates humanism and restore its promises.

He expresses disappointment with the revolutions that became bureaucracies and totalitarian governments, and the national liberation movements that eventually led to oppression and international wars. Defining the human as subject, ego, synthesis, identification, cognition, and mood all too easily lead to subjugation, persecution, and murder.

Painfully aware of the long history of dehumanization which reached its apotheosis in Hitler and Nazism, Levinas does not underestimate the difficulty of reconciling oneself with another. The humanity of the human, Levinas argues, is not discoverable through mathematics, rational metaphysics or introspection. Rather, it is found in the recognition that the suffering and mortality of others are the obligations and morality of the self.

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A word of warning--you may already own this book.......2004-03-30

All five of the essays collected and (re)translated in this volume, _Humanism of the Other_, have previously appeared as chapters in Levinas' _Collected Philosophical Papers_, edited and translated by Alphonso Lingis (Duquesne Univ Press, 1998: ISBN#:0820703060). That is not to say that the essays here collected are no good. The new translation is self-avowedly more accurate to Levinas' French than the Lingis translation.

With the above proviso in mind, the five essays collected and published as _Humanism of the Other_ are wonderful representations of the radicality of Levinas' notions of ethics. Of particular is the essay "No Identity." Students and scholars of Levinas in particular and Continental ethics in general are well served by being or becoming familiar with this work.

The introductory essay by Richard Cohen is very clear and worthy of a serious reading in its own right. Cohen is a top-notch Levinas scholar and translator.

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