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“Whether or not one agrees with Levinas’s unique reading and criticism of Western philosophy and theology, this book must be appreciated for its radical approach to ethics and theology. It deserves careful engagement by all Christian theologians and ehticists whose common intellectual background is the very target of Levinas’s criticism.”—Theological Studies
“This book serves as a supplement to Levinas’s other works. . . . Whether or not on agrees with Levinas’s unique reading and criticism of Western philosophy and theology, this book must be appreciated for its radical approach to ethics and theology. It deserves careful engagement by all Christian theologians and ethicists whose common intellectual background is the very target of Levinas’s criticism.”—Theological Studies
Product Description
This book consists of transcripts from two lecture courses Levinas delivered in 1975-76, his last year at the Sorbonne. They cover some of the most pervasive themes of his thought and were written at a time when he had just published his most important—and difficult—book, Otherwise than Being, or Beyond Essence. Both courses pursue issues related to the question at the heart of Levinas’s thought: ethical relation. The Foreword and Afterword place the lectures in the context of his work as a whole, rounding out this unique picture of Levinas the thinker and the teacher.
The lectures are essential to a full understanding of Levinas for three reasons. First, he seeks to explain his thought to an audience of students, with a clarity and an intensity altogether different from his written work. Second, the themes of God, death, and time are not only crucial for Levinas, but they lead him to confront their treatment by the main philosphers of the great continental tradition. Thus his discussions of accounts of death by Heidegger, Hegel, and Bloch place Levinas’s thought in a broader context. Third, the basic concepts Levinas employs are those of Otherwise than Being rather than the earlier Totality and Infinity: patience, obsession, substitution, witness, traumatism. There is a growing recognition that the ultimate standing of Levinas as a philosopher may well depend on his assessment of those terms. These lectures offer an excellent introduction to them that shows how they contribute to a wide range of traditional philosophical issues.
The lectures are essential to a full understanding of Levinas for three reasons. First, he seeks to explain his thought to an audience of students, with a clarity and an intensity altogether different from his written work. Second, the themes of God, death, and time are not only crucial for Levinas, but they lead him to confront their treatment by the main philosphers of the great continental tradition. Thus his discussions of accounts of death by Heidegger, Hegel, and Bloch place Levinas’s thought in a broader context. Third, the basic concepts Levinas employs are those of Otherwise than Being rather than the earlier Totality and Infinity: patience, obsession, substitution, witness, traumatism. There is a growing recognition that the ultimate standing of Levinas as a philosopher may well depend on his assessment of those terms. These lectures offer an excellent introduction to them that shows how they contribute to a wide range of traditional philosophical issues.
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5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding entry into Levinas' later work, Nov 26 2008
By Pen Name? "fluxus" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: God, Death, and Time (Paperback)
I don't intend a long review here, but I thought it worth commenting, in lack of any other reviews. I have found this text to be the most clear exposition of Levinasian philosophy available. It consists of 2 lecture courses and thus the chapters are very well broken down, short and oriented topically per lecture period. The material is very much in the vein of Levinas' work in Otherwise than Being, and to my mind it provides an exceptional entry way into that work's more obscure corners. The ideas are very clearly laid out here (difficult still, but very clear) and the translation reads exceptionally well.If you have been looking for a single text that best expresses the heart of Levinasian thought (particularly in the later period, of course, which I take to be his most interesting period), I would suggest this book above all others. I've read a great deal of them, so this is my impression from studying Levinas.
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