Emmanuel Levinas
1906 - 1995
5
Quotes
Biography
Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) was a Lithuanian-born French philosopher known for his works in phenomenology, existentialism, ethics, and ontology. He studied under Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, eventually developing his unique philosophical system centered around the ethics of interpersonal relationships and the encounter with the Other. Levinas' thought emphasizes the primacy of ethics as the foundation of philosophy, arguing for the responsibility humans have towards one another beyond mere rationality.
Famous Quotes (5)
1
To approach the Other in conversation is to welcome his expression, in which at each instant he overflows the idea a thought would carry away from it. It is therefore to receive from the Other beyond the capacity of the I, which means exactly: to have the idea of infinity.
2
The self is only able to maintain itself through continual negation of itself. Being an 'I' is inconceivable without an Other.
3
Ethics is an optics, through which the face of the other is revealed to me.
4
The face commands without ordering.
5
The Other forcibly reveals to me the world in which my security is rooted.