Emmanuel Levinas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Emmanuel Levinas
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| Born |
Emmanuelis Levinas
12 January 1906, O.S. 30 December 1905 |
| Died | 25 December 1995 (aged 89) Clichy, France
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| Education | University of Freiburg (no degree) University of Strasbourg (Dr, 1929) University of Paris (DrE, 1961) |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Continental philosophy Existential phenomenology Jewish philosophy |
| Institutions | University of Poitiers University of Paris University of Fribourg |
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Main interests
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Ethics · metaphysics · ontology · Talmud · theology |
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Notable ideas
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"The Other" · "The Face" |
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Influences
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Emmanuel Levinas (born January 12, 1906 – died December 25, 1995) was a French philosopher. He was of Lithuanian Jewish background. He is famous for his ideas in Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology. His work mainly looked at how ethics (what is right and wrong) connects to metaphysics (the nature of reality) and ontology (the study of being).
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Life and Career of Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuelis Levinas was born in 1906 in Kaunas, Lithuania. His family was Litvak and middle-class. During World War I, his family moved to Kharkiv in Ukraine. They stayed there during the Russian revolutions of 1917. In 1920, his family returned to Lithuania.
Early Education and Studies
Levinas went to Russian-language schools in Kaunas and Kharkiv. After returning to Lithuania, he spent two years at a Jewish school. Then, he moved to France for his university studies. In 1923, he started studying philosophy at the University of Strasbourg. There, he became lifelong friends with the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot.
In 1928, he went to the University of Freiburg in Germany. He studied phenomenology with Edmund Husserl. He also met Martin Heidegger there, and Heidegger's ideas greatly impressed him. Levinas was one of the first French thinkers to introduce Husserl and Heidegger's ideas to France. He helped translate Husserl's Cartesian Meditations in 1931. His own early works, like The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology (1930), used their ideas. In 1929, he earned his first doctorate degree.
World War II Experiences
Levinas became a French citizen in 1939. When France declared war on Germany, he joined the army as a translator. In 1940, his military unit was captured by the Germans. Levinas spent the rest of World War II as a prisoner of war in a camp in Germany.
He was kept in a special barrack for Jewish prisoners. They were not allowed to practice their religion. Life in the camp was hard, but being a prisoner of war saved him from the the Holocaust's concentration camps. He often wrote in a notebook during this time. These notes later became his books Existence and Existents (1947) and Time and the Other (1948).
While he was a prisoner, his friend Maurice Blanchot helped Levinas's wife and daughter hide in a monastery. This saved them from the Holocaust. Blanchot also helped Levinas stay in touch with his family. Sadly, other members of Levinas's family were killed by the SS in Lithuania. After the war, Levinas studied the Talmud with a teacher known as Monsieur Chouchani.
Teaching Career and Later Works
In 1961, Levinas published his first major book, Totality and Infinity. This book was part of his second doctorate degree. After earning this degree, Levinas taught at a Jewish high school in Paris. He later became its director.
He began teaching at the University of Poitiers in 1961. Then, he taught at the University of Paris (Nanterre campus) in 1967. In 1973, he moved to the Sorbonne, where he taught until he retired in 1979. His second important philosophical work, Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, was published in 1974. He also taught at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. In 1989, he received the Balzan Prize for Philosophy.
Levinas later regretted his early admiration for Heidegger. This was because Heidegger joined the Nazis. Levinas wrote some of his later works to challenge Heidegger's philosophy, especially its ethical problems.
Levinas's son is the composer Michaël Levinas. His son-in-law is the French mathematician Georges Hansel. One of his well-known students was Rabbi Baruch Garzon.
Emmanuel Levinas's Philosophy
In the 1950s, Levinas became a leading French thinker. His main idea was about the ethics of "the Other". He called this "ethics as first philosophy."
Understanding "The Other"
For Levinas, "the Other" is another person. This person cannot be fully known or turned into an object by us. Traditional philosophy often tries to understand things by making them objects of study. Levinas believed that our responsibility to "the Other" comes before any search for objective truth. He thought philosophy should be the "wisdom of love," not just the "love of wisdom."
Levinas believed that meeting another person, especially in a face-to-face way, is a special experience. In this meeting, you feel both close to and separate from the other person. He said that the other person "reveals himself in his alterity" (his differentness). This happens not as a shock, but as a gentle, important moment.
When you see the face of "the Other," it makes a demand on you. This demand comes even before you can decide to agree or disagree. You instantly recognize that the other person is unique and separate from you. Even trying to harm someone doesn't truly take away their "otherness."
Responsibility and the Divine Trace
Levinas believed that we have an "infinite responsibility" for "the Other." The face of "the Other" makes huge moral demands on us. He said it's like we are responsible for their life and feel guilty for surviving them. This moral power of "the Other's" face is like a "trace" of the Divine. It's a sense of duty that comes from something beyond us.
He explained that this is like a command, "Thou shalt not kill!" It's a divine command, but without needing a direct divine authority. He said, "the trace is not just one more word: it is the proximity of God in the countenance of my fellowman." This means that God's presence is felt in our connection and responsibility to other people.
Levinas also argued that our sense of self is shaped by our responsibility to "the Other." He believed that being responsible for others is not just a small part of who we are. Instead, it is what makes us who we are and gives our lives meaning. So, "ethics as first philosophy" means that our basic duty to others is more important than simply gaining knowledge. When we meet "the Other," we get a sense of something infinite.
Influence on Other Thinkers
Levinas was a well-known public thinker in France. His ideas greatly influenced younger philosophers like Jacques Derrida. Derrida's essay "Violence and Metaphysics" helped spread interest in Levinas's work. Jean-Luc Marion, another philosopher, said that Levinas was one of the two great French philosophers of the 20th century, alongside Henri Bergson.
Cultural Influence of Emmanuel Levinas
For thirty years, Levinas gave short talks on Rashi, a medieval French rabbi. He did this every Saturday morning at the Jewish high school where he was the principal. This tradition had a strong impact on many students over the years.
The Dardenne brothers, who are famous Belgian filmmakers, have said that Levinas's ideas are important for their filmmaking ethics.
In his book Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption, author Sam B. Girgus argues that Levinas's ideas have greatly influenced films about redemption.
Magician Derren Brown also mentions Levinas in his book A Book of Secrets.
Key Works by Emmanuel Levinas
Levinas wrote many books and essays. Some of his most important philosophical works include:
- The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology (1930)
- Existence and Existents (1947)
- Time and the Other (1948)
- Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority (1961)
- Humanism of the Other (1972)
- Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence (1974)
- Beyond the Verse: Talmudic Readings and Lectures (1982)
See also
In Spanish: Emmanuel Lévinas para niños
- Alterity
- Authenticity
- Face-to-face
- Ethic of reciprocity
- Ecstasy in philosophy
- The Other
- Jewish philosophy
- Martin Buber
- Knud Ejler Løgstrup
