The Cambridge Introduction to Emmanuel Levinas

Michael L. Morgan is Chancellor's Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, Emeritus, at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Discovering Levinas (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Beyond Auschwitz (2002), which was a finalist in the category of Jewish Thought for the Koret Book Award. He has also edited several collections of essays and editions of Spinoza's writings and his articles have appeared in journals including the Review of Metaphysics, the Journal of Religion and the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy.

• Introduction; 1. Responding to atrocity in the twentieth century; 2. How to read Levinas: normativity and transcendental philosophy; 3. The ethical content of the face-to-face; 4. Philosophy, totality, and the everyday; 5. Subjectivity and the self: passivity and freedom; 6. God, philosophy, and the ground of the ethical; 7. Time, history, and messianism; 8. Greek and Hebrew; Conclusions, puzzles, problems; Annotated reading list and bibliography.

'The writings of Emmanuel Levinas deserve a place as central to the discipline of moral philosophy. Michael Morgan's riveting study provides a point of access available to all. Crossing the range of Levinas's thought, Morgan provides [a] model of philosophical elaboration: patient, interrogative, and, at every turn, argumentatively suggestive. This book immediately takes its place as the best introduction to Levinas's philosophy available.' J. M. Bernstein, New School for Social Research