Ethics, Exegesis and Philosophy
The reputation and influence of Emmanuel Levinas (1906–96) has grown powerfully. Well known in France in his lifetime, he has since his death become widely regarded as a major European moral philosopher profoundly shaped by his Jewish background. A pupil of Husserl and Heidegger, Levinas pioneered new forms of exegesis with his post-modern readings of the Talmud, and as an ethicist brought together religious and non-religious, Jewish and non-Jewish traditions of contemporary thought. Richard A. Cohen has written a book which uses Levinas' work as its base but goes on to explore broader questions of interpretation in the context of text-based ethical thinking. Levinas' reorientation of philosophy is considered in critical contrast to alternative contemporary approaches such as those found in modern science, psychology, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida and Ricoeur. Cohen explores a manner of philosophizing which he terms 'ethical exegesis'.
- Clarity in presenting otherwise difficult contemporary intellectual topics and debates
- Mastery of the ethical thought of Emmanuel Levinas
- Ethically engaged and committed thinking, rather than indifferent, detached scholarship
Reviews & endorsements
'… the collection stands as, and can indeed be recommended as, a state-of-the-art reader in the interpretation and criticism of one of the foremost moral philosophers in the Continental tradition.' The Heythrop Journal
Product details
January 2005Adobe eBook Reader
9780511032356
0 pages
0kg
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: philosophy as ethical exegesis
- Part I. Exceeding Phenomenology:
- 1. Bergson and the emergence of an ecological age
- 2. Science: phenomenology, intuition and philosophy
- 3. The good work of Edmund Husserl
- 4. Better than a questionable Heidegger
- Part II. Good and Evil:
- 5. Alterity and alteration: development of an opus
- 6. Maternal body/maternal psyche: contra psychoanalytic philosophy
- 7. Humanism and the rights of exegesis
- 8. What good is the Holocaust? On suffering and evil
- 9. Ricoeur and the lure of self-esteem
- 10. In conclusion
- Index.