Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority (Philosophical Series)
by Emmanuel Levinas (Goodreads author!)
published
August 1969
by Duquesne University Press
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binding
Paperback, 307 pages
isbn
0820702455
(isbn13: 9780820702452)
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Read in November, 2004
recommends it for:
philosophers
I found this book has shone in my memory for such a long time as a book everyone should read because it explored the ideas of 'self' and 'other' with such ease. This is a kind of ease one develops when one has seen first hand the horrors that ensue from the fragmentation of morality. Levinas was a survivor of the Shoa (better term than holocaust) and he saw whjat it was in the Nazi philosophy that allowed men and women to act immorally to the Jew, the Homosexual (evebn though many of the Nazis w...more
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This book is full of rich and provocative insights. Levinas developed his philosophical insights--a blend of themes of phenomenology with ideas from Bergson and German Idealism--during the same period that Heidegger and Sartre were developing their philosophies, and there is strong resonance between all three. What is frustrating about this book, though, is that, (1) unlike the works by Sartre and Heidegger, it is often characterized by an approach to language that seems contrived and (2) it i...more
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Read in January, 2008
Fantastic - accessible, yet deeply rich. Engaging this text fully itself would take a semester, but I read through and highlighted/starred with the intent to return to spend more time on it simply for pleasure. It's not often a theory text is a delight to read, but this one is canonical as well. Necessary for anyone in the humanities, anyone interested in ethics, contemporary theory... insightful. I love Levinas!
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone interested in ethics.
Levinas's first major treatment of his conception of ethics as first philosophy. At its center is a view of the ethical relation as fundamentally asymmetrical, due to the dual height and destitution of the Other. An ethics founded on the face-to-face, Levinas runs into trouble when he attempts to move "beyond the face" and offer a phenomenology of Eros that has been very pointedly critiqued by Irigaray.
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Read in September, 2007
Certainly, an incredibly difficult book--but definitely one well worth the effort. Levinas presents so much to contemplate in a way I find other (alter, perhaps) than in most other forms of expression. The ideas presented here must be continually remembered and reflected on, in my view--very highly recommended.
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Read in February, 2008
Levinas has rekindled my faith that it is possible to act ethically and be a generally "good" person without subscribing to any particular codification of religion. Amazing book, if you can get through it. It made my head hurt!
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Read in February, 2007
Levinas has put love into philosophical terms. I don't mean romantic love. I mean love as in the giving of oneself for the well-being of all others.
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Read in January, 2000
Best philosophical response to World War II, and the only real counterpoint to Heidegger among their many contemporaries.
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Read in January, 1996
Every time I read this, I realize how my understanding of Levinas is partial.
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A complicated and thoughtful contemplation of suffering and responsibility.
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