A French philosopher of Lithuanian origin, Emmanuel Levinas is one of the great thinkers of ethics in the 20th century. Having introduced the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger to France, he made the relationship with the other the foundation of all philosophy.
Emmanuel Levinas(1906 — 1995)
Emmanuel Levinas
Lituanie, France
7 min read
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« The Other is what I myself am not.»
« Ethics is an optics.»
Key Facts
- Born in 1906 in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania, into a Jewish family
- Studied in Strasbourg and then in Freiburg under Husserl and Heidegger in the late 1920s
- Taken prisoner of war in 1940; much of his family was exterminated during the Holocaust
- Published Totality and Infinity in 1961, a major work on the ethical relationship with the other
- Published Otherwise than Being, or Beyond Essence in 1974; died in 1995 in Paris
Works & Achievements
His doctoral thesis, which helped introduce Husserl to France; the young Sartre read it and discovered phenomenology through it.
A work drawn from his captivity notebooks, exploring the experience of anonymous existence, the famous “there is” (il y a).
A series of lectures in which he thinks about time starting from the relationship with others, rather than from a solitary consciousness.
His major work, which places the “face” of the other and ethics at the foundation of philosophy.
A collection bringing together his reflections on Judaism, freedom, and responsibility after the Shoah.
His second great book, more radical, which conceives of responsibility as prior to being itself.
Radio interviews with Philippe Nemo, an accessible gateway to his entire body of thought.
Commentaries on Talmudic texts read as a living source of ethical and philosophical reflection.
Anecdotes
Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, into a Jewish family, the young Levinas learned to read Hebrew before Russian and kept a lifelong passion for the great Russian novelists — Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy — whom he cited as a first initiation into the question of the other.
In 1928-1929, as a student in Freiburg, Levinas attended the lectures of Husserl and then Heidegger. He was even present at the famous Davos debate pitting Heidegger against Ernst Cassirer, and later recounted how, in a student skit, he had parodied Cassirer by powdering his hair white — a gesture he bitterly regretted after Heidegger's Nazi commitment.
Taken prisoner in 1940 as an officer in the French army, Levinas spent five years in a Stalag, a camp for prisoners of war. Shielded by his French uniform from the fate reserved for Jews, he secretly wrote notebooks there that would become the book *Existence and Existents*. During this time, his wife and daughter were hidden in a monastery in France thanks to Maurice Blanchot.
Almost all of Levinas's family who had stayed in Lithuania was murdered by the Nazis. This catastrophe runs through his entire body of work: he dedicated his great book *Otherwise than Being* “to the memory of those who were closest among the six million assassinated by the National Socialists.”
Every week, for decades, Levinas studied the Talmud with an enigmatic master nicknamed “Monsieur Chouchani,” who was also the teacher of Elie Wiesel. From this teaching would come his famous *Talmudic Readings*, in which he reread the ancient texts as a living source of ethical thought.
Primary Sources
We name face the way in which the Other presents itself, exceeding the idea of the Other in me. The epiphany of the face is ethical.
The face is what forbids us to kill. The relation to the face is, from the very first, ethical.
Responsibility for the other is not an accident that happens to a subject, but precedes essence within it.
Monotheism is not an arithmetic of the divine. It is the perhaps supernatural gift of seeing one human being as absolutely like another.
Husserl's phenomenology made possible this breakthrough beyond the objectivism and naturalism in which philosophy had enclosed itself.
Key Places
Levinas's birthplace, at the heart of a rich Eastern European Jewish culture. There he received an education shaped by Hebrew, Russian, and the Bible.
Levinas arrived here in 1923 to study philosophy and struck up a friendship with Maurice Blanchot. It was the place of his French intellectual formation.
In 1928-1929, he attended the lectures of Husserl and Heidegger, discovering phenomenology at its source. This experience shaped his entire body of work.
A prisoner of war from 1940 to 1945, Levinas was interned in an officers' camp. There he secretly wrote the notebooks for his future books.
Appointed professor at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1973, Levinas taught there at the peak of his academic recognition.
The city where Levinas lived, headed the École Normale Israélite Orientale, and died in 1995. His eulogy was delivered by Jacques Derrida.
Typical Objects
Levinas studied the tractates of the Talmud every week, which he commented on in his *Talmudic Readings*. The ancient text became for him a living source of ethical thought.
During his five years in a Stalag, Levinas secretly wrote notebooks in which he sketched his first major ideas. They would give rise to several of his postwar books.
As a prisoner of war, Levinas wore the French uniform that protected him from the fate reserved for Jewish deportees. His status as a captured soldier probably saved his life.
The philosopher's everyday tool, the pen accompanied the writing of his dense lectures, articles and books. Levinas wrote in a demanding, almost poetic style.
The works of Husserl and Heidegger, which he was among the first to read and translate in France, formed the foundation of his work. He engaged with them in order to go beyond them.
A professor at Poitiers, Nanterre and then the Sorbonne, Levinas passed on his thought to generations of students. University teaching was an essential part of his life.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Daily Life
Morning
Levinas often began his days by studying texts, whether Hebrew or philosophical, in the quiet of the morning. Careful reading and note-taking nourished his demanding writing work.
Afternoon
The afternoon was devoted to teaching and to directing the École normale israélite orientale, which he led for many years. He prepared his courses, received students and colleagues, and took part in academic life.
Evening
In the evening, he continued writing his works in a dense and carefully crafted style. Each week, he set aside time to study the Talmud, sometimes alongside his teacher Monsieur Chouchani.
Food
Born into an Eastern European Jewish family, Levinas was familiar with the dietary traditions of Judaism. His life as a Parisian academic was, moreover, marked by sobriety and regularity.
Clothing
Levinas wore the sober attire of the twentieth-century French academic and intellectual: jacket, shirt, and tie. His unassuming appearance contrasted with the radical nature of his thought.
Housing
He lived most of his life in Paris, in an apartment where books of philosophy mingled with religious texts. His home was also a place of transmission, marked by the memory of departed loved ones.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
La théorie de l'intuition dans la phénoménologie de Husserl
1930
De l'existence à l'existant
1947
Le Temps et l'Autre
1947
Totalité et Infini. Essai sur l'extériorité
1961
Difficile liberté. Essais sur le judaïsme
1963
Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence
1974
Éthique et Infini
1982
