Editing Emmanuel Levinas

{{short description|Lithuanian-French philosopher (1906–1995)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = [[Western philosophy]]
|era = [[20th-century philosophy]]
|image = Emmanuel Levinas.jpg
|birth_date  = 12 January 1906, [[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe|O.S.]] 30 December 1905
|birth_place = [[Kaunas|Kovno]], [[Kovno Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (present-day Kaunas, [[Lithuania]])
|death_date  = {{death date and age|1995|12|25|1906|01|12|df=yes}}<ref>Bergo, Bettina, "Emmanuel Levinas", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2015/entries/levinas/>.</ref>
|death_place = [[Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine|Clichy]], France
|education   = [[University of Freiburg]] (no degree)<br>[[University of Strasbourg]] ([[Doctorat d'université|Dr]], 1929)<br>[[University of Paris]] ([[Docteur d'État|DrE]], 1961)
|institutions = [[University of Poitiers]]<br>[[University of Paris]]<br>[[University of Fribourg]]
|school_tradition = [[Continental philosophy]]<br>[[Existential phenomenology]]<ref name="DLL">Andris Breitling, Chris Bremmers, Arthur Cools (eds.), ''Debating Levinas’ Legacy'', Brill, 2015, p. 128.</ref><br>[[Jewish philosophy]]
|main_interests   = [[Ethics]]{{·}}[[metaphysics]]{{·}}[[ontology]]{{·}}[[Talmud]]{{·}}[[theology]]
|notable_ideas    = [[Other (philosophy)|"The Other"]]{{·}}[[Face-to-face (philosophy)|"The Face"]]
|birth_name = Emmanuelis Levinas
|influenced=Zygmunt Bauman, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricoeur}}

'''Emmanuel Levinas'''<ref>[http://www.nonfiction.fr/article-6364-lanachronisme_constitutif_de_lexistence_juive.htm ''L'anachronisme constitutif de l'existence juive'' – Nonfiction.fr]: "''Première remarque, sans doute à l'humour décalé : l'auteur de ces lignes a toujours entendu Emmanuel Levinas réclamer que l'on écrive son nom correctement, c'est-à-dire sans accent.''" [http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/L%C3%A9vinas/129718 Larousse.fr] also employs the non-accented form.</ref><ref>Another form of the surname is '''Lévinas''' according to [http://www.levinas.fr/levinas/biographie.asp Levinas.fr], [http://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/emmanuel-levinas/ Universalis.fr] and [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/337960/Emmanuel-Levinas Britannica.com].</ref> (born '''Emanuelis Levinas'''<ref>Meins G. S. Coetsier, ''The Existential Philosophy of Etty Hillesum'', BRILL, 2014, p. 269.</ref> {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɛ|v|ɪ|n|ɑː|s}};<ref>{{YouTube|id=AA8x_0wekf4|Levinas, Totality and Infinity|time=0m15s}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|ɛmanɥɛl levinas|lang}};<ref>The pronunciation is the same whether the name is written ''Levinas'' or ''Lévinas''.</ref> 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French [[philosopher]] of [[Lithuanian Jews|Lithuanian Jewish]] ancestry who is known for his work within [[Jewish philosophy]], [[existentialism]], and [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]], focusing on the relationship of [[ethics]] to [[metaphysics]] and [[ontology]].

==Life and career==
Levinas was born on 12 January 1906, into a [[middle-class]] [[Litvaks|Litvak]] family in [[Kaunas]], in present-day [[Lithuania]], then Kovno district, at the Western edge of the [[Russian Empire]]. Because of the disruptions of [[World War I]], the family moved to [[Kharkiv]] in [[Ukraine]] in 1916, where they stayed during the Russian revolutions of February and October 1917. In 1920, his family returned to the Republic of Lithuania. Levinas's early education was in secular, Russian-language schools in Kaunas and Kharkiv.<ref>{{cite book | last= Moyn | first= S. | year= 2005 | title= Origins of the Other: Emmanuel Levinas between Revelation and Ethics | url= https://archive.org/details/originsofotherem00moyn | url-access= registration | publisher= Cornell University Press | location= Ithaca, New York | pages=[https://archive.org/details/originsofotherem00moyn/page/23 23–24] | isbn= 9780801473661 }}</ref> Upon his family's return to the Republic of Lithuania, Levinas spent two years at a Jewish [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] before departing for France, where he commenced his university education.

Levinas began his philosophical studies at the [[University of Strasbourg]] in 1923,<ref name="Shapiro">{{cite web |last1=Shapiro |first1=Susan E. |title=Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) |url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/routwriting/emmanuel_levinas_1906_1995 |website=Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work |publisher=Routledge |access-date=14 October 2018}}</ref> and his lifelong friendship with the French philosopher [[Maurice Blanchot]]. In 1928, he went to the [[University of Freiburg]] for two semesters to study [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] under [[Edmund Husserl]]. At [[Freiburg]] he also met [[Martin Heidegger]], whose philosophy greatly impressed him. Levinas would in the early 1930s be one of the first French intellectuals to draw attention to Heidegger and Husserl by translating, in 1931, Husserl's ''[[Cartesian Meditations]]'' (with the help of Gabrielle Peiffer and with advice from [[Alexandre Koyré]]) and by drawing on their ideas in his own philosophy, in works such as ''{{lang|fr|La théorie de l'intuition dans la phénoménologie de Husserl}}'' (''The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology''; his 1929/30 [[doctoral thesis]]), ''{{lang|fr|De l'Existence à l'Existant}}'' (''From Existence to Existents''; 1947), and ''{{lang|fr|En Découvrant l’Existence avec Husserl et Heidegger}}'' (''Discovering Existence with Husserl and Heidegger''; first edition, 1949, with additions, 1967). In 1929, he was awarded his doctorate (''[[Doctorat d'université]]'' degree) by the University of Strasbourg for his thesis on the meaning of intuition in the philosophy of Husserl, published in 1930.

Levinas became a naturalized French citizen in 1939.<ref name="Bergo2017">{{cite web |last1=Bergo |first1=Bettina |title=Emmanuel Levinas |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/levinas/ |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosopher |access-date=14 October 2018}}</ref> When France declared war on Germany, he reported for military duty as a translator of Russian and French.<ref name="Shapiro" /> During the German invasion of France in 1940, his military unit was surrounded and forced to surrender. Levinas spent the rest of [[World War II]] as a [[prisoner of war]] in a camp near [[Hanover]] in [[Germany]]. Levinas was assigned to a special barrack for Jewish prisoners, who were forbidden any form of religious worship. Life in the Fallingbostel camp was difficult, but his status as a prisoner of war protected him from [[the Holocaust]]'s concentration camps.<ref name="Ivry">{{cite web |last1=Ivry |first1=Benjamin |title=A Loving Levinas on War |url=https://forward.com/culture/125385/a-loving-levinas-on-war/ |website=Forward |date=11 February 2010 |access-date=14 October 2018}}</ref> Other prisoners saw him frequently jotting in a notebook. These jottings were later developed into his book ''De l'Existence à l'Existant'' (1947) and a series of lectures published under the title ''Le Temps et l'Autre'' (1948). His wartime notebooks have now been published in their original form as ''Œuvres: Tome 1, Carnets de captivité: suivi de Écrits sur la captivité; et, Notes philosophiques diverses'' (2009).

Meanwhile, [[Maurice Blanchot]] helped Levinas's wife and daughter spend the war in a monastery, thus sparing them from the Holocaust. Blanchot, at considerable personal risk, also saw to it that Levinas was able to keep in contact with his immediate family through letters and other messages. Other members of Levinas's family were not so fortunate; his mother-in-law was deported and never heard from again, while his father and brothers were killed by the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] in Lithuania.<ref>{{Citation |last=Bergo |first=Bettina |title=Emmanuel Levinas |date=2019 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/levinas/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Fall 2019 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=2022-07-17}}.</ref> After the Second World War, he studied the [[Talmud]] under the enigmatic [[Monsieur Chouchani]], whose influence he acknowledged only late in his life.

Levinas's first book-length essay, ''[[Totality and Infinity]]'' (1961), was written as his ''[[Doctorat d'État]]'' primary thesis (roughly equivalent to a [[Habilitation]] thesis). His secondary thesis was titled ''Études sur la phénoménologie'' (''Studies on Phenomenology'').<ref name="Schrift p. 159">Alan D. Schrift (2006), ''Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes And Thinkers'', Blackwell Publishing, p. 159.</ref> After earning his habilitation, Levinas taught at a private Jewish High School in Paris, the {{Interlanguage link multi|École normale Israélite orientale (Paris)|fr}}, eventually becoming its director.<ref>{{Cite journal | url=https://www.academia.edu/30541734 |title = The Temptation of Pedagogy: Levinas's Educational Thought from His Philosophical and Confessional Writings|journal = Journal of Philosophy of Education|last1 = Matanky|first1 = Eugene D.| date=January 2018 | doi=10.1111/1467-9752.12302 | s2cid=149995642 }}</ref> He participated in 1957 at the International Meeting at the [[monastery of Toumliline]], a conference focused on contemporary challenges and interfaith dialogue.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pont |first1=Daniel |title=Pont Toumliline English - DIMMID |url=https://dimmid.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B647E5337-0D2E-42C0-B307-75D22155DE77%7D |website=dimmid.org |access-date=25 January 2024 |date=June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mattelart |first1=Armand |title=Por una mirada-mundo - Armand Mattelart - Conversaciones con Michel Sénécal |date=5 March 2014 |publisher=Editorial GEDISA |isbn=978-84-9784-803-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzYlBQAAQBAJ |access-date=25 January 2024 |language=es}}</ref> Levinas began teaching at the [[University of Poitiers]] in 1961, at the Nanterre campus of the [[University of Paris]] in 1967, and at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in 1973, from which he retired in 1979. He published his second major philosophical work, ''Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence'', in 1974. He was also a professor at the [[University of Fribourg]] in [[Switzerland]]. In 1989, he was awarded the [[Balzan Prize]] for Philosophy.

According to his obituary in ''[[The New York Times]]'',<ref name="Levinas's obituary">{{Cite news |last=Steinfels |first=Peter |date=1995-12-27 |title=Emmanuel Levinas, 90, French Ethical Philosopher |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/27/world/emmanuel-levinas-90-french-ethical-philosopher.html |access-date=2022-07-17 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Levinas came to regret his early enthusiasm for Heidegger, after the latter joined the [[Nazis]]. Levinas explicitly framed several of his mature philosophical works as attempts to respond to Heidegger's philosophy in light of its ethical failings.
 
His son is the composer [[Michaël Levinas]], and his son-in-law is the French mathematician [[:fr:Georges Hansel|Georges Hansel]]. Among his most famous students is Rabbi Baruch Garzon from Tetouan (Morocco), who studied with Levinas at the Sorbonne, and later went on to become one of the most important Rabbis of the Spanish-speaking world.

==Philosophy==
In the 1950s, Levinas emerged from the circle of intellectuals surrounding the philosopher [[Jean Wahl]] as a leading French thinker. His work is based on the [[ethics]] of [[Other (philosophy)|the Other]] or, in Levinas's terms, on "ethics as first philosophy". For Levinas, the Other is not knowable and cannot be made into an object of the self, as is done by traditional [[metaphysics]] (which Levinas called "[[ontology]]"). Levinas prefers to think of philosophy as the "wisdom of love" rather than the "love of wisdom" (the usual translation of the Greek "φιλοσοφία"). In his view, responsibility towards the Other precedes any "objective searching after truth".

Levinas derives the primacy of his ethics from the experience of the encounter with the Other. For Levinas, the irreducible relation, the epiphany, of the [[Face-to-face (philosophy)|face-to-face]], the encounter with another, is a privileged [[phenomenon]] in which the other person's proximity and distance are both strongly felt. "The Other precisely ''reveals'' himself in his [[alterity]] not in a shock negating the I, but as the primordial phenomenon of gentleness."<ref>E. Levinas, ''[[Totality and Infinity]]: An Essay on Exteriority'' ([[Alphonso Lingis]], transl. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969), p. 150.</ref> At the same time, the revelation of the face makes a demand, and this demand is before one can express or know one's freedom to affirm or deny.<ref>For recent reflections on the ethical-political imports of Levinas's tradition (and biography), along with the examination of the notion of the ''face-to-face'' in relation to ''le visage'', while taking into account the Levantine/Palestinian standpoint on conflict, see: [[Nader El-Bizri]], "Uneasy Meditations Following Levinas," ''Studia Phaenomelnologica'', Vol. 6 (2006), pp. 293–315.</ref> One instantly recognizes the transcendence and [[heteronomy]] of the Other. Even murder fails as an attempt to take hold of this otherness.

While critical of traditional theology, Levinas does require that a "trace" of the Divine be acknowledged within an ethics of Otherness. This is especially evident in his thematization of debt and guilt. "A face is a trace of itself, given over to my responsibility, but to which I am wanting and faulty. It is as though I were responsible for his mortality, and guilty for surviving."<ref>Emmanuel Levinas, ''Otherwise than Being'', trans. A. Lingis (Dordrecht: Nijhoff, 1974), p. 91.</ref> The moral "authority" of the face of the Other is felt in my "infinite responsibility" for the Other.<ref>Levinas, Entre Nous, trans. M. B. Smith & B. Harshav (New York: Columbia, 1998), p. 74.</ref> The face of the Other comes towards me with its infinite moral demands while emerging out of the trace.

Apart from this morally imposing emergence, the Other’s face might well be adequately addressed as "Thou" (along the lines proposed by [[Martin Buber]]) in whose welcoming countenance I might find great comfort, love and communion of souls—but not a moral demand bearing down upon me from a height. "Through a trace the irreversible past takes on the profile of a ‘He.’ The beyond from which a face comes is in the third person."<ref>Levinas, "The Trace of the Other," in ''Deconstruction in Context'', ed. M. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), p. 356.</ref> It is because the Other also emerges from the ''illeity'' of a He (''il'' in French) that I instead fall into infinite debt vis-à-vis the Other in a situation of utterly asymmetrical obligations: I owe the Other everything, the Other owes me nothing. The trace of the Other is the heavy shadow of God, the God who commands, "[[Thou shalt not kill]]!"<ref>Levinas, ''Difficult Freedom'', trans. S. Hand (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1990), p. 8f.</ref> Levinas takes great pains to avoid straightforward theological language.<ref>"A face does not function in proximity as a sign of a hidden God who would impose the neighbor on me." ''Otherwise than Being'', p. 94.</ref> The very metaphysics of signification subtending theological language is suspected and suspended by evocations of how traces work differently than signs. Nevertheless, the divinity of the trace is also undeniable: "the trace is not just one more word: it is the proximity of God in the countenance of my fellowman."<ref>Levinas, ''Entre Nous'', p. 57.</ref> In a sense, it is divine commandment without divine authority.

Following ''[[Totality and Infinity]]'', Levinas later argued that responsibility for the other is rooted within the subjective constitution. The first line of the preface of this book is "everyone will readily agree that it is of the highest importance to know whether we are not duped by morality."<ref>E. Levinas, ''[[Totality and Infinity]]: An Essay on Exteriority'' ([[Alphonso Lingis]], transl. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969), p. 21.</ref> This idea appears in his thoughts on recurrence (chapter 4 in ''[[Otherwise than Being]]''), in which Levinas maintains that subjectivity is formed in and through subjection to the other. Subjectivity, Levinas argued, is primordially ethical, not theoretical: that is to say, responsibility for the other is not a derivative feature of subjectivity, but instead, ''founds'' subjective being-in-the-world by giving it a meaningful direction and orientation. Levinas's thesis "ethics as first philosophy", then, means that the traditional philosophical pursuit of knowledge is secondary to a basic ethical duty to the other. To meet the Other is to have the idea of Infinity.<ref>French: "''Aborder Autrui [...] c'est donc recevoir d'Autrui au-delà de la capacité du Moi: ce qui signifie exactement: avoir l'idée de l'infini.''" in ''Totalité et Infini'', Martinus Nijhoff, La Haye, 1991, p. 22.</ref>

The elderly Levinas was a distinguished French public intellectual, whose books reportedly sold well. He had a major influence on the younger, but more well-known [[Jacques Derrida]], whose seminal ''Writing and Difference'' contains an essay, "Violence and Metaphysics", that was instrumental in expanding interest in Levinas in France and abroad. Derrida also delivered a eulogy at Levinas's funeral, later published as ''Adieu à Emmanuel Levinas'', an appreciation and exploration of Levinas's moral philosophy. In a memorial essay for Levinas, [[Jean-Luc Marion]] claimed that "If one defines a great philosopher as someone without whom philosophy would not have been what it is, then in France there are two great philosophers of the 20th Century: [[Henri Bergson|Bergson]] and Lévinas."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/print.asp?editorial_id=9839 |title=Radical Philosophy - print friendly |access-date=2011-06-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105000553/http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/print.asp?editorial_id=9839 |archive-date=2011-01-05 }}</ref>

His works have been a source of controversy since the 1950s, when [[Simone de Beauvoir]] criticized his account of the subject as being necessarily masculine, as defined against a feminine other.<ref>{{cite book | last= de Beauvoir | first= S. | year= 2009 | title= The Second Sex | publisher= Vintage | location= New York | pages=6 | isbn= 9780307277787 }}</ref> While other feminist philosophers like [[Tina Chanter]] and the artist-thinker [[Bracha L. Ettinger]]<ref>Bracha L. Ettinger in conversation with Emmanuel Lévinas, (1991–1993). Time is the Breath of the Spirit. Translated by C. Ducker and J. Simas (with portrait-photos of E. L. taken by Bracha L.E.). Oxford: MOMA, 1993. Reprinted (Hebrew) in: Iyyun, Oct. 1994. Reprinted (Russian) in: Kabinet, Prilozehnie nº 3, 1994. Reprinted as "Un monde sans moi" (French) in: Athanor nº 5: 29–33, 1994. Reprinted in: Kaninet – An Anthology. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1997.</ref><ref>Emmanuel Lévinas in conversation with Bracha L. Ettinger, (1991–1993). "Le féminin est cette différence inouïe". Four one-off Artist's Books, 1994. Reprinted as "Que dirait Eurydice?" Braka! nº 8, 1997. Reprinted as "Que dirait Eurydice?"/"What Would Eurydice Say?" (English/French) to coincide with Kabinet exhibition, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Paris: BLE Atelier, 1997. Reprinted in Athena: Philosophical Studies. Vol. 2, 2006.</ref> have defended him against this charge, increasing interest in his work in the 2000s brought a reevaluation of the possible misogyny of his account of the feminine, as well as a critical engagement with his French nationalism in the context of colonialism. Among the most prominent of these are critiques by [[Simon Critchley]] and [[Stella Sandford]].<ref>Critchley, S. 2004. "Five Problems in Levinas’ View of Politics and the Sketch of a Solution to Them". Political Theory 32, 2;172-185. V. also Sandford, S. 2001. The Metaphysics of Love: Gender and Transcendence in Levinas, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, New York.</ref> However, there have also been responses which argue that these critiques of Levinas are misplaced.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://rdcu.be/6nYT|title = Of Levinas' 'structure' in address to his four 'others'| year=2016 | doi=10.1007/s11007-015-9346-0 | last1=Galetti | first1=Dino | journal=Continental Philosophy Review | volume=49 | issue=4 | pages=509–532 | s2cid=254797828 }}</ref>

==Cultural influence==
For three decades, Levinas gave short talks on [[Rashi]], a medieval French rabbi, every Shabbat morning at the Jewish high school in Paris where he was the principal. This tradition strongly influenced many generations of students.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hartman.org.il/Research_And_Comment_View.asp?Article_Id=456&Cat_Id=323&Cat_Type=research_and_comment |title=Weekly Shabbat talks by Emmanuel Levinas |access-date=2013-10-30 |archive-date=2016-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818080740/https://hartman.org.il/Research_And_Comment_View.asp?Article_Id=456&Cat_Id=323&Cat_Type=research_and_comment |url-status=dead }}</ref> 
 
[[Dardenne brothers|Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne]],<ref name="Dardenne Study">{{cite book | title=Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne - Contemporary Film Directors | publisher=University of Illinois Press | author=Joseph Mai | year=2010 | pages=ix-xvii | isbn=978-0-252-07711-1}}</ref> renowned Belgian filmmakers, have referred to Levinas as an important underpinning for their filmmaking ethics.

In his book ''Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption: Time, Ethics, and the Feminine'', author [[Sam B. Girgus]] argues that Levinas has dramatically affected films involving redemption.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Girgus|first1=Sam|title=Conversations with Scholars of American Popular Culture|url=http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/spring_2010/girgus.htm|website=Americana|publisher=Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture|access-date=2 July 2016}}</ref>

Magician [[Derren Brown]]'s ''A Book of Secrets''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Derren |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1245343989 |title=A Book of Secrets: Finding Solace in a Stubborn World |date=2021 |publisher=Bantam Press |isbn=978-1-78763-305-6 |location=[S.l.] |oclc=1245343989}}</ref> references Levinas.

==Published works==
A full bibliography of all Levinas's publications up until 1981 is found in Roger Burggraeve ''Emmanuel Levinas'' (1982).

A list of works, translated into English but not appearing in any collections, may be found in [[Simon Critchley|Critchley, S.]] and [[Robert Bernasconi|Bernasconi, R.]] (eds.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Levinas'' (Cambridge UP, 2002), pp.&nbsp;269–270.

;Books
*1929. ''Sur les « Ideen » de M. E. Husserl''
*1930. ''La théorie de l'intuition dans la phénoménologie de Husserl'' (''The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology'')
*1931. ''Der Begriff des Irrationalen als philosophisches Problem'' (with Heinz Erich Eisenhuth)
*1931. ''Fribourg, Husserl et la phénoménologie''
*1931. ''Les recherches sur la philosophie des mathématiques en Allemagne, aperçu général'' (with W. Dubislav)
*1931. ''Méditations cartésiennes. Introduction à la phénoménologie'' (with Edmund Husserl and Gabrielle Peiffer)
*1932. ''Martin Heidegger et l'ontologie''
*1934. ''La présence totale'' (with [[Louis Lavelle]])
*1934. ''Phénoménologie''
*1934. ''Quelques réflexions sur la philosophie de l'hitlérisme''
*1935. ''De l'évasion''
*1935. ''La notion du temps'' (with N. Khersonsky)
*1935. ''L'actualité de Maimonide''
*1935. ''L'inspiration religieuse de l'Alliance''
*1936. ''Allure du transcendental'' (with [[Georges Bénézé]])
*1936. ''Esquisses d'une énergétique mentale'' (with J. Duflo)
*1936. ''Fraterniser sans se convertir''
*1936. ''Les aspects de l'image visuelle'' (with R. Duret)
*1936. ''L'esthétique française contemporaine'' (with [[Valentin Feldman]])
*1936. ''L'individu dans le déséquilibre moderne'' (with R. Munsch)
*1936. ''Valeur'' (with Georges Bénézé)
*1947. ''De l'existence à l'existant'' (''Existence and Existents'')
*1948. ''Le Temps et l'Autre'' (''Time and the Other'')
*1949. ''En Découvrant l’Existence avec Husserl et Heidegger'' (''Discovering Existence with Husserl and Heidegger'')
*1961. ''Totalité et Infini: essai sur l'extériorité'' (''[[Totality and Infinity]]: An Essay on Exteriority'')
*1962. ''De l'Évasion'' (''[[On Escape]]'')
*1963 & 1976. ''Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism''
*1968. ''Quatre lectures talmudiques''
*1972. ''Humanisme de l'autre homme'' (''[[Humanism of the Other]]'')
*1974. ''Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence'' (''[[Otherwise than Being|Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence]]'')
*1976. ''Sur Maurice Blanchot''
*1976. ''Noms propres'' (''[[Proper Names]]'') - includes the essay ''"Sans nom"'' ("Nameless")
*1977. ''Du Sacré au saint – cinq nouvelles lectures talmudiques''
*1980. ''Le Temps et l'Autre''
*1982. ''L'Au-delà du verset: lectures et discours talmudiques'' (''[[Beyond the Verse: Talmudic Readings and Lectures]]'')
*1982. ''Of God Who Comes to Mind''
*1982. ''Ethique et infini'' (''Ethics and Infinity: Dialogues of Emmanuel Levinas and Philippe Nemo'')
*1984. ''Transcendence et intelligibilité'' (''[[Transcendence and Intelligibility]]'')
*1988. ''A l'Heure des nations'' (''[[In the Time of the Nations]]'')
*1991. ''Entre Nous''
*1995. ''Altérité et transcendence'' (''[[Alterity and Transcendence]]'')
*1998. ''De l’obliteration. Entretien avec Françoise Armengaud à propos de l’œuvre de Sosno'' (»''On Obliteration: Discussing Sacha Sosno'', trans. Richard A. Cohen, in: ''Art and Text'' (winter 1989), 30-41.)
*2006. ''Œuvres: Tome 1, Carnets de captivité: suivi de Écrits sur la captivité ; et, Notes philosophiques diverses'', Posthumously published by Grasset & Fasquelle

;Articles in English
*"A Language Familiar to Us". ''[[Telos (journal)|Telos]]'' 44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press.

==See also==
*[[Alterity]]
*[[Authenticity (philosophy)|Authenticity]]
*[[Face-to-face (philosophy)|Face-to-face]]
*[[Golden Rule]]
*[[Ecstasy (philosophy)|Ecstasy in philosophy]]
*[[Other (philosophy)|Other]]
*[[Jewish philosophy]]
*[[Martin Buber]]
*[[Knud Ejler Løgstrup]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak, Robert Bernasconi & Simon Critchley, ''Emmanuel Levinas'' (1996).
* [[Ann W. Astell|Astell, Ann W.]] and Jackson, J. A., ''Levinas and Medieval Literature: The "Difficult Reading" of English and Rabbinic Texts'' (Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University press, 2009).
* [[Simon Critchley]] and [[Robert Bernasconi]] (ed.) ''The Cambridge Companion to Levinas'' (2002).
* Theodore De Boer, ''The Rationality of Transcendence: Studies in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas'', Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben, 1997.
* Roger Burggraeve, ''The Wisdom of Love in the Service of Love: Emmanuel Levinas on Justice, Peace, and Human Rights'', trans. Jeffrey Bloechl.  Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2002.
* Roger Burggraeve (ed.) ''The awakening to the other: a provocative dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas'', Leuven: Peeters, 2008
* [[Cristian Ciocan (philosopher)|Cristian Ciocan]], [[Georges Hansel]], [https://www.springer.com/philosophy/philosophical+traditions/book/978-1-4020-4124-2 ''Levinas Concordance'']. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005.
* Hanoch Ben-Pazi, ''Emmanuel Levinas: Hermeneutics, Ethics, and Art'', Journal of Literature and Art Studies 5 (2015), 588 - 600
* Richard A. Cohen, ''Out of Control: Confrontations Between Spinoza and Levinas'', Albany: State University of New York Press, 2016.
* Richard A. Cohen, ''Levinasian Meditations: Ethics, Philosophy, and Religion'', Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2010.
* Richard A. Cohen, ''Ethics, Exegesis and Philosophy: Interpretation After Levinas'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
* Richard A. Cohen, ''Elevations: The Height of the Good in Rosenzweig and Levinas'', Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994.
* Joseph Cohen, ''Alternances de la métaphysique. Essais sur Emmanuel Levinas'', Paris: Galilée, 2009. [in French]
* [[Simon Critchley]], "Emmanuel Levinas: A Disparate Inventory," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Levinas'', eds. S. Critchley & [[Robert Bernasconi|R. Bernasconi]]. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
* [[Jutta Czapski]], [https://www.verlag-koenigshausen-neumann.de/product_info.php/info/p8639_Verwundbarkeit-in-der-Ethik-von-Emmanuel-L--vinas--Epistemata-Philosophie--Bd--578-.html ''Verwundbarkeit in der Ethik von Emmanuel Levinas''], Königshausen u. Neumann, Würzburg 2017
* [[Jacques Derrida|Derrida, Jacques]], ''Adieu to Emmanuel Levinas'', trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.
* [[Jacques Derrida|Derrida, Jacques]], "At This Very Moment in This Work Here I Am," trans. Ruben Berezdivin and Peggy Kamuf, in ''Psyche: Inventions of the Other, Vol. 1'', ed. Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth G. Rottenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007. 143-90.
* [[Bracha L. Ettinger]], conversation with Emmanuel Levinas, (1991–1993). ''Time is the Breath of the Spirit''. Oxford: MOMA, 1993.
* Bracha L. Ettinger, ''Que dirait Eurydice?/What Would Eurydice Say?'', conversation with Emmanuel Levinas, (1991–1993). Paris: BLE Atelier, 1997. Reprinted in ''Athena: Philosophical Studies'' Vol. 2, 2006.    
* Bernard-Donals, Michael, "Difficult Freedom: Levinas, Memory and Politics", in ''Forgetful Memory'', Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009. 145-160.
* [[Jacques Derrida|Derrida, Jacques]], "Violence and Metaphysics: An Essay on the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas," in ''Writing and Difference'', trans. Alan Bass. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1978. 79-153.
*Michael Eldred, [http://www.arte-fact.org/wrldshrg.html 'Worldsharing and Encounter: Heidegger's ontology and Lévinas' ethics'] 2010.
*Michael Eskin, ''Ethics and Dialogue in the Works of Levinas, Bakhtin, Mandel'shtam, and Celan'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
* Alexandre Guilherme and W. John Morgan, 'Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995)-dialogue as an ethical demand of the other', Chapter 5 in ''Philosophy, Dialogue, and Education: Nine modern European philosophers'', Routledge, London and New York, pp.&nbsp;72–88, {{ISBN|978-1-138-83149-0}}.
* Seán Hand, ''Emmanuel Levinas'', London: Routledge, 2009
*{{cite book |last1=Herzog |first1=Annabel |title=Levinas's Politics: Justice, Mercy, Universality |date=2020 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-5197-5 |language=en}}
* Benda Hofmeyr (ed.), ''Radical passivity – rethinking ethical agency in Levinas'', Dordrecht: Springer, 2009
* [[Mario Kopić]], The Beats of the Other, ''Otkucaji drugog'', Belgrade: Službeni glasnik, 2013.
* Marie-Anne Lescourt, ''Emmanuel Levinas'', 2nd edition. Flammarion, 2006. [in French]
* Emmanuel Levinas, ''Ethics and Infinity: Conversations with Philippe Nemo'', trans. R.A. Cohen. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1985.
* Emmanuel Levinas, "Signature," in ''Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism'', trans. Sean Hand. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990 & 1997.
* [[John Llewelyn]], ''Emmanuel Levinas: The Genealogy of Ethics'', London: Routledge, 1995
*John Llewelyn, ''The HypoCritical Imagination: Between Kant and Levinas'', London: Routledge, 2000.
*John Llewelyn, ''Appositions – of Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
*Paul Marcus, ''Being for the Other: Emmanuel Levinas, Ethical Living, and Psychoanalysis'', Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2008.
*Paul Marcus, ''In Search of the Good Life: Emmanuel Levinas, Psychoanalysis and the Art of Living'', London: Karnac Books, 2010.
* Nicole Note, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140519113702/http://philosophy-e.com/the-impossible-possibility-of-environmental-ethics-emmanuel-levinas-and-the-discrete-other/ "The impossible possibility of environmental ethics, Emmanuel Levinas and the discrete Other"]}} in: ''Philosophia: E-Journal of Philosophy and Culture'' – 7/2014.
* Diane Perpich ''The ethics of Emmanuel Levinas'', Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008
* [[Fred Poché]], ''Penser avec Arendt et Lévinas. Du mal politique au respect de l'autre'', [[Chronique Sociale]], Lyon, en co-édition avec EVO, Bruxelles et Tricorne, Genève, 1998 (3e édition, 2009).
*[[Jadranka Skorin-Kapov]], ''The Aesthetics of Desire and Surprise: Phenomenology and Speculation'', Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2015.
* Tanja Staehler, ''Plato and Levinas – the ambiguous out-side of ethics'', London: Routledge 2010 [i.e. 2009]
* Toploski, Anya. 2015. ''Arendt, Levinas, and politics of relationality.'' Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
* Wehrs, Donald R.: ''Levinas and Twentieth-Century Literature: Ethics and the Reconstruction of Subjectivity.'' Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2013. {{ISBN|3826061578|}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==

{{wikiquote}}
* Institute for Levinassian Studies. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110721010156/http://www.levinas.fr/levinas/base.asp Complete primary and secondary bibliography]}}, a search engine for Levinas's texts, and more
* The Levinas Online Bibliography (Prof. dr. Joachim Duyndam, editor-in-chief), [http://www.levinas.nl levinas.nl] Hosted by the University of Humanistics, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
* Annual Levinas Philosophy Summer Seminar, Director: Richard A. Cohen: {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140512231215/http://jewishstudies.buffalo.edu/levinas.shtml]}}
* [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]: "[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/levinas/ Emmanuel Levinas]".

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