Ethics, Exegesis and Philosophy: Interpretation after Levinas
by Richard A. Cohen
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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 show more 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'. show lessTags
Member Reviews
This is an extremely lucid and persuasive account of the way in which morality might be reconfigured after the collapse of theodicy as a consequence of the Holocaust: there is more to Levinasian philosophy than that, of course; and Richard Cohen's analysis of Levinas is more nuanced than that - but it is as an exploration of the way in which an understanding of our moral character might develop in a world which has seen too much evil, but might do so heedful of the best of the heritage of faith, that this book excels.
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6+ Works 66 Members
Richard A. Cohen is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Jewish Thought at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. His books include-Ricoeur as Another: The Ethics of Subjectivity (coedited with James L. Marsh) and Face to Face with Levinas, both also published by SUNY Press.
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