Addressing Levinas (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy) - Softcover

"This outstanding collection of essays brings together many of the best-known commentators on Levinas's work--as well as some of his finest translators into English--on a variety of essential topics, from Levinas's original reinterpretation of ethics, ontology, and phenomenology (for example, his analyses of the face, the Other, and death) to his important but often neglected political works, his rich Talmudic readings, and his suggestive if sometimes problematic relation to psychoanalysis and questions of sexual difference." --Michael Naas, DePaul University "Given the rapidy growing interest in Levinas, this volume has to be seen as an important contribution. Addressing Levinas gathers together the best-known scholars working today in French thought. Frequently reflecting on contemporary events, these essays demonstrate that Levinas's thought is not only appropriate but more than ever trenchant." --Leonard Lawlor, University of Memphis

At a time of great and increasing interest in the work of Emmanuel Levinas, this volume draws readers into what Levinas described as ""philosophy itself"" - ""a discourse always addressed to another."" Thus the philosopher himself provides the thread that runs through these essays on his writings, one guided by the importance of the fact of being addressed - the significance of the Saying much more than the Said. The authors, leading Levinas scholars and interpreters from across the globe, explore the philosopher's relationship to a wide range of intellectual traditions, including theology, philosophy of culture, Jewish thought, phenomenology, and the history of philosophy. They also engage Levinas's contribution to ethics, politics, law, justice, psychoanalysis and epistemology, among other themes. In their radical singularity, these essays reveal the inalienable alterity at the heart of Levinas's ethics. At the same time, each essay remains open to the others, and to the perspectives and positions they advocate. Thus the volume, in its quality and diversity, enacts an authentic encounter with Levinas's thought, embodying an intellectual ethics by virtue of its style. Bringing together contributions from philosophy, theology, literary theory, gender studies, and political theory, this book offers a deeper and more thorough encounter with Levinas's ethics than any yet written.