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In what ways has Emmanuel Lévinas shaped a new discourse within contemporary philosophy?

• Lévinas: a path to philosophy in the 21st century

  Emmanuel Lévinas stood alone in the history of philosophy in the last century. As a truly modern thinker he had one foot in the world of contemporary European continental philosophy. As a Jew he had another foot in a very different milieu: the long neglected realm of Jewish texts, commentaries, and the Talmud. In the space between these two worlds Levinas was a pioneer, a guide to new ways of thinking about the self and the other. Historians will judge his incomparable writings as a key bridge between the 20th and 21st centuries.

  Voted for by moshe alban.

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  • 
    Auxiliar
    August 21, 2006
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    But in which of these ways was he alone, most original, or most influential, exactly?
  • moshe alban
    August 21, 2006
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    Thanks for your question. I'll try to give a brief sketch of how I see Levinas' writings. I hope that this may begin to answer your question! Hopefully your question may encourage others to join this conversation, too. 1. Levinas was an existentialist. He was influenced by a branch of philosophy called phenomenology, which Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines as "the study of the development of human consciousness and self-awareness as a preface to or a part of philosophy." 2. But Levinas also offered a valuable critique of existentialism by arguing that ETHICS PRECEDES ONTOLOGY. {Ontology is a fancy word for describing words about Being or Existence - it's basically a synonym for Existentialism.} In other words, a discourse of morality and proper interpersonal conduct must exist prior to our conversations about experience and existence. 3. And one of the things that makes Levinas unique is that his discourse on Ethics is grounded within a Humanist tradition and a Jewish tradition. Maybe the central question behind Levinas' writings is "Where does Ethics come from?" 4. I'm basically a teacher and social worker by training, so this summary may not be totally accurate. But it seems to me that for Levinas the pathways of Judaism and Humanism light the way for our most basic questions about the Self and our questions about the Other. As a Jew and as a European intellectual, Levinas returns Existentialism to its religious roots. In this sense, Levinas might be considered the Jewish world's answer to Soren Kierkegaard - one of the first existentialist writers and theologians.
  • 
    Auxiliar
    August 22, 2006
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    But do you really believe he was more influential in ethics than Dewey or Russell, or more _influential_ to the existentialists than Sartre (an erstwhile Maoist) or Camus (an imperialist), or more influential to humanists than Habermas or Havel? Outside of Derrida, it seems to me that he has been dwarfed in his influence by the other giants of the 20th century. Also, if you ask me, the bridge between the last and the next century will be Chomsky.
  • moshe alban
    August 22, 2006
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    Noam Chomsky does appear to have an exalted status within the intellectual scene of the past few decades: he's been involved in major movements within linguistics, psychology, and politics. College professors, graduate students, and pseudo-intellectuals love to quote him. But I don't really see where he's developed a coherent ethical discourse. Chomsky doesn't even seem to believe that ethics is that important. Maybe I'm wrong - I honestly never read Chomsky with the exception of a few of his interviews with David Barsamian. As for the other names you mentioned - I guess I have some extra reading to do! All I know is that on the back cover of Levinas' book "Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism" there is the following description of the author: "'Jean Paul Sartre hailed him as the philosopher who introduced France to Husserl and Heidegger. Derrida has paid him homage as 'master.'" I'd say those are pretty good credentials, in terms of the genealogy of existentialsm. And no other thinkers in the 20th century were able to translate the religious ethical impulse quite like Levinas.
  • 
    Auxiliar
    August 23, 2006
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    FYI

    The names thing was just me getting back at my English teacher for alleging that existentialism was a nihilism and not a humanism, and I happened to vent this through this debate. For this, I will admit, my post was overly harsh, and I regret this. That being said, what about Martin Buber and Reinhold Niebuhr? Also, with regards to Chomsky, I have this to add, if you please. Chomsky throughout his career, as far as I've observed it, has been pleading for a return to the enlightenment values of Hume, Rousseau, Kant, and others. He gets most recognized most, however, for his assertions against world policies, particularly against Israel. His work has been working towards a society based more on truisms (the golden rule, honest approach to relativism, open governments, etc.) than on the structures societies set up to preserve the power structures that he observes. But what I think will convince the most people here to read Chomsky is his essay on the role of the intellectual in the world, wherein he, like Levinas, attacks Heidegger and all the establishments that were to be Heidegger's forum. He has a webpage, google it.
  • • moshe alban
      August 23, 2006
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      Thanks for clarifying your understanding of Chomsky. And also for explaining your use of philosophical name-dropping, too! Sometimes it might be fun to put a bunch of famous writers in a hat and to pick a few out at random and then to go see what they have to say. There's a saying that he is wise who learns from everyone. Earlier I forgot to mention another great Jewish existentialist theologian - Abraham Joshua Heschel. He taught Ethics and Jewish Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary for the last years of his life, and he produced some truly breathtaking writings on religion. My favorite is his book called "The Sabbath: Its Meaning For Modern Man." Heschel grew up in Poland and later studied in Berlin, so his use of the word "man" should be understood within the framework of the German language that he spoke and wrote in. (Unlike English, most European languages have a clear masculine and feminine structure. I don't know if this is true of all languages, though...)
    • moshe alban
      September 6, 2006
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      on Martin Buber and Levinas

      Martin Buber's "Ich und Du" is certainly one of the greatest philosophical texts produced in the 20th century. It occupies a space between poetry, theology, and philosophy. You are right to point to Buber as one of the great thinkers of the last century. His notion of dialogue returns the discussion of God from theological abstraction to the concrete realm of human relationship ("Beziehung" in German). The Holy is only made manifest through our connections with the Other. This notion is central to Levinas' writings.

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