Introduction to the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas

Emmanuel Levinas was a French philosopher and theologian. Levinas was born in Lithuania in 1906 and immigrated to France as a young man. He was influenced by the emerging field of phenomenology and the work of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger who were his teachers. He is best known for his ethical philosophy, particularly the concept of "ethics as first philosophy." This means that, for Levinas, ethics should take precedence over other forms of philosophical inquiry as the most basic form of human existence. In other words, the nature of our sense of self and reality are tied to our ethical obligations to others..

Levinas and the Other

One of the key concepts in Levinas's philosophy is the idea of "the other." For Levinas, the encounter with the other person is what fundamentally shapes our ethical obligations. In his view, the other person is fundamentally different from us and cannot be reduced to an object or a concept. Instead, the other person demands a response from us, and it is through this response that we become ethical beings.

Levinas's influence on philosophy and phenomenology

Levinas's philosophy has had a significant influence on a number of other philosophers and thinkers, particularly in the fields of ethics and political theory. His work has been discussed by a wide range of scholars, including Jean-François Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Luc Nancy. Despite this influence, however, Levinas's philosophy remains a subject of debate and controversy. Some critics have argued that his emphasis on the other person can lead to a form of moral relativism, while others have questioned the practical implications of his ideas. Nevertheless, his work continues to be a subject of interest and discussion in the field of philosophy.

To learn more:

Heidegger and Levinas on being with others

Levinas, the Self and Altruism

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*This text was created with the aid of OpenAI’s GPT-3 model and modified by the author.

Five Key Thinkers in Phenomenology

Phenomenology is a philosophical movement that originated in the early 20th century and focuses on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience. This philosophical movement owes to thinkers like Hegel but essentially started with Edmund Husserl (see: origins of phenomenology. Other prominent thinkers in the field of phenomenology include Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Emmanuel Levinas. Here is a brief review of their work with links to further learning.

Edmund Husserl: father of phenomenology

Edmund Husserl is considered the founder of phenomenology. His famous philosophical call was to go "back to things themselves and study of actual human experience. Husserl developed the concept of "intentionality," which refers to the fact that consciousness is always directed towards something. He also introduced the ideas of the "phenomenological reduction" and "Epoché" which are a method for bracketing out preconceptions and focusing on the immediate experience of phenomena. Here you can find a study guide to Husserl's thought. 

Martin Heidegger: being in the world

Martin Heidegger is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, and his work had a significant impact on phenomenology. He pointed out, after Husserl, that phenomenology should examine the phenomenon of existence itself, what he called the question of being. Heidegger is best known for his concepts of Dasein and "being-in-the-world," which emphasizes the inseparability of human beings from their environment. He also developed the idea of "ontological difference," which asserts that there is a fundamental distinction between beings and the being of beings. Another influential thought by Heidegger is that of "being-towards-death" which means the meaning of our life is determined by our relationship with our death. Here you can find an introduction to Martin Heidegger's Philosophy

Jean-Paul Sartre: existence precedes essence

Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher who was heavily influenced by both Husserl and Heidegger. He is best known for his concept of "existentialism," which emphasizes the individual's freedom and responsibility in creating their own meaning in life. Sartre also developed the idea of "bad faith," which occurs when an individual denies their own freedom and acts inauthentically. One of Sartre's best known claims is that "existence precedes essence" meaning that the essence of out lives is not predetermined but left for us to decide if we like it or not.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty: the lived body

Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French philosopher who was influenced by both Husserl and Heidegger. He is known for his concept of "phenomenological ontology," which asserts that the structure of human experience is fundamentally embodied and intersubjective. He also emphasized the importance of the "lived body" in our experience of the world. Merleau-Ponty was also influential in the thoght of human rights right after world war two.

Emmanuel Levinas: the face of the other

Emmanuel Levinas was a French philosopher who is known for his emphasis on the ethical implications of our relations with others. In other words, Levinas turned phenomenology and its questions of being into a study of ethical existence.Levinas developed the idea of "the face of the other," which emphasizes the infinite responsibility that we have towards others. In his later years he also introduced the concept of "substitution," which refers to the idea that we are responsible for the suffering of others. Here you can find a simple introduction to Levinas with additional articles.

More articles, explanation and summaries to be found in our What is Phenomenolgy page.

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*This text was created with the aid of OpenAI’s GPT-3 model and modified by the author.

Heidegger and Levinas on being with others

Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas have as much agreement as they do discord. One of these point of common ground with different stances is the topic of being in the world as being with others.

Heidegger famously termed this type of being "Mitsein" (see detailed explanation in the link). Levinas builds upon Heidegger's concept of Mitsein by emphasizing the ethical implications of human existence as "being-with" others. For Levinas, the fact that we are always already "with" others means that we have a fundamental responsibility towards them. This responsibility arises from the recognition of the other person as a subject with their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences, rather than as an object to be used or manipulated.

In contrast to Heidegger, who emphasizes the way that human existence is shaped by its relations to the world and to other people, Levinas focuses on the way that our relations with others are inherently ethical. He argues that our encounter with the other person is not just a matter of being in the same physical space or participating in the same social practices, but of recognizing the other person's inherent dignity and worth.

Being with infinity

This recognition of the other person's inherent worth is what Levinas calls "infinity," and it is this infinity that gives rise to our responsibility towards others. According to Levinas, this responsibility is not something that we choose or decide upon, but is something that arises from the very fact of our being-with others. It is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human.

In this way, Levinas's concept of responsibility builds upon Heidegger's notion of Mitsein by emphasizing the ethical dimension of human existence. While Heidegger focuses on the way that we are always already "with" others, Levinas emphasizes the way that this "being-with" gives rise to a fundamental responsibility towards others.

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*This text was created with the aid of OpenAI’s GPT-3 model and modified by the author.

Alterity and Otherness in Phenomenology - meaning and definition

Alterity and Otherness are concepts used in various ways by different branches of philosophy. In phenomenology, alterity and otherness serve to describe the characteristic of being other or different, especially when referring to another conscious subject. The other is opposed to the self or the same, and selfhood is contrasted with otherness and alterity. Alterity can also be defined against "identity", the trait of being identical with oneself. 

The question of philosophical otherness ranges from morality and law, to humanities and social sciences and especially anthropology. In phenomenology it serves as special point of interest as the phenomena of otherness and alterity and manner by which it is experienced. 

 

Alterity and Otherness in the phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas

The concepts of otherness and alterity were developed by the phenomenological philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas sees the other and the relation to otherness as an essential part of what makes us who we are. For him, selfhood is always relational and is always bound be a relation with alterity. Otherness for Levians directs our attention to our own selfhood as call for responsibility towards the other. Response and responsibility towards the other is the weight that gives meaning to our actions which are always directed towards alterity. 

For Levinas, the face of the other appears to us as infinitely unknown and that is why they open the subject to what is beyond his own reach. Otherness breaks the self enclosed "same" or "identical" and defines us as who are based on our relation with the other. Levinas goes as far as arguing that ethics precedes ontology. This means that our committed relationship with others comes before our awareness of our own physical existence.

Back to: introduction to Levinas

What is Phenomenology? 

 

Levinas, the Self and Altruism

For hundreds of years, at leas since Descartes' "cogito", philosophy has been preoccupied with the question of the "I", its essence, its place in the world and its relationship with reality. According to Emmanuel Levinas, all the ways in which Western philosophy formulated these questions, from Plato and Aristotle to Spinoza, Kierkegaard and Heidegger, always returned in the end to the self, what he called "egoism".

Levinas himself was looking for a way to understand who the self is that would not cut him off from the world but depend on his relationship with it, an altruistic way. Levinas, like many philosophers before him, searched for the one thing that makes us unique, makes us disposable and irreplaceable. What he found is not an existential "authenticity" of an "I" that stands on its own, but a "responsibility" and altruism that define the "I" as a relation to those other than it.

There is no me without a you

For Levinas, the "I" does not exist first and only then meets someone who is different from him, exists first of all "within himself" before he goes out into the world. In fact, it is the encounter with the other that makes us aware of ourselves, and this is because the other demands from us to be responsible towards him. This responsibility, the altruism, gives meaning to who we are in the world.

Love is something that makes us special and unique. It is true that every day people all over the world fall in love, but when it happens to us we feel that it is the most special thing that can be. Loving someone else means that we can no longer stay "within ourselves" and we have to understand ourselves from the relationship with the beloved. Love does not last long without commitment and responsibility and therefore to choose it is to choose who "I am".

Levinas' Difficult Altruism

In Levinas, the concept of altruism is linked to the concept of freedom. To be who we are we must be free, however freedom is not being "free as the spirit" but the ability to take meaningful actions in the world. In order for actions to have meaning for us, we must bear responsibility for them, say that these are "our" actions. That's why freedom "involves a responsibility that may surprise" (Totality and Infinity, p. 226), what Levinas calls "difficult freedom". It is the responsibility to others, and not the thought of ourselves, that makes us who we are.

See our introduction to Levinas

Jewish existentialism - summary

Jewish existentialism is a category of work by Jewish authors dealing with existentialist themes and concepts (e.g. debate about the existence of God and the meaning of human existence), and intended to answer theological questions that are important in Judaism. The existential angst of Job is an example from the Hebrew Bible of the existentialist theme. Theodicy and post-Holocaust theology make up a large part of 20th century Jewish existentialism.

Examples of Jewish thinkers and philosophers whose works include existentialist themes are Martin Buber, Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Lev Shestov, Franz Rosenzweig, Hans Jonas, Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Emil Fackenheim.

Precursors

Jewish existentialism finds its roots in both the traditional philosophical school of existentialism and the peculiarities of Jewish theology, Biblical commentary, and European Jewish culture. Existentialism as a philosophical system grew as a result of the works of such non-Jewish thinkers as Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, and Martin Heidegger.

The Books of Ecclesiastes and Job, found in the Hebrew Bible and often cited as examples wisdom literature in the Hebrew Biblical tradition, both include existentialist themes. The Book of Job tells the story of Job, who is beset by both God and satan by many hardships intended to test his faith. He ultimately keeps his faith and receives redemption and rewards from God. The Book of Job includes many discussions between Job and his friends, as well as between Job and God concerning the nature, origin, and purpose of evil and suffering in the world. The Book of Ecclesiastes is broader in scope and includes many meditations on the meaning of life and God’s purpose for human beings on Earth. Passages in Ecclesiastes describe human existence in such terms as “all is futile” [1] and “futile and pursuit of wind.”  Much Biblical scholarship and Talmud exegesis has been devoted to exploring the apparent contradiction between the affirmation of an all-powerful God’s existence and the futility, meaningless, and/or difficulty of human life. Judaism’s treatment of theodicy makes heavy use of the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes. 

Some of the trends in the modern philosophy of existentialism come from concepts important to early rabbinic and pre-rabbinic Judaism. William Barret’s Irrational Man, which traces the history of existentialist thought in the Western world, explains how the competing worldviews of Greco-Roman culture and Hebrew/Jewish culture have helped shape modern existentialism. Barrett says that the Hebraic concept of the “man of faith” is one “who is passionately committed to his own being.” The Hebrew “man of faith,” Barrett says, trusts in a God who can only know through “experience” and not “reasoning.” Juxtaposed with the believing Hebrew is the skeptical Greek “man of reason” who seeks to attain God through “rational abstraction.” The Greek invention of logic and the tradition of rational philosophical inquiry contributed to Existentialism. The Greeks invented philosophy as an academic discipline and as a way to approach the problems of existence, eventually resulting in the philosophical works of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Kierkegaard and other existentialists. Hebraic thought trends had much more of an influence on the important concepts of existentialism. Much of modern existentialism may be seen as more Jewish than Greek. 

Several core concepts found in the ancient Hebrew tradition that are often cited as the most important concepts explored by existentialism, for example, the “uneasiness” “deep within Biblical man,” also his “sinfulness” and “feebleness and finiteness.”  While “the whole impulse of philosophy for Plato arises from an ardent search for escape from the evils of the world and the curse of time,”  Biblical Judaism recognizes the impossibility of trying to transcend the world entirely via intellectualism, lofty thoughts, and ideals. As the late Jewish existentialist Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (b. 1903-1993) articulates for a popular audience of secular Jews, “the idea of holiness according to halakhic [Jewish law] world view does not signify a transcendent realm completely separate and removed from reality…of the supreme good…the halakhic conception of holiness…[is] the holiness of the concrete.”  In the words of Barret, “right conduct is the ultimate concern of the Hebrew,”  and indeed for the observant Jew, according to R. Soloveitchik. Therefore, the Jewish tradition is differentiated from the Greek system of thought, which emphasizes correct knowledge, thinking, and consciousness as the passports to transcendence of the physical world. Some traditions of ancient Gnosticism, like the neo-Platonist desert cults, also subscribed to an idea similar to the Platonist ideal of “true knowledge of the Good” being a gateway to transcending one’s ordinary, physical existence.

Important Jewish existentialists 

Martin Buber
Franz Rosenzweig
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Joseph Soloveitchik

Emmanuel Levinas

see also: Theodicy and post-Holocaust theology in Jewish Existentialism

back to: Existentialism: Summaries, Concepts and Key Thinkers

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