Vladimir Jankélévitch and the Question of Forgiveness

Alan Udoff is professor of philosophy and religious studies at St. Francis College. He received his doctorate degree in philosophy from Georgetown University. His publications include edited volumes on Kafka, Rosenzweig, and Leo Strauss.

• AcknowledgmentsExordiumPart 1: Forgiveness: Text and ContextChapter 1: Vladimir Jankélévitch at the Colloques des intellectuels juifs de langue françaiseChapter 2: Jankélévitch and the Metaphysics of ForgivenessPart 2: Theory and PraxisChapter 3: Guilty ForgivenessChapter 4: The Great DistressChapter 5: Travelling Light: The Conditions of Unconditional Forgiveness in Levinas and JankélévitchChapter 6: Forgiveness and Its LimitsChapter 7: Forgiveness and “Should We Pardon Them?”: The Pardon and The ImprescriptiblePart 3: The Witness of LiteratureChapter 8: New Spartans: Jankélévitch, Scheler and Tolkien on VanityChapter 9: To Atone and To Forgive: Jaspers, Jankélévitch/Derrida, and the Possibility of ForgivenessPart 4: At the Crossroads of TheologyChapter 10: The Ethics of Honor and the Possibility of PromiseChapter 11: “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?” On Jankélévitch and the Question of RepentanceList of Contributors

A latter-day humanist in the tradition of Montaigne, the essays of the French-Jewish philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch display a delicacy of insight and a depth of feeling as applied to the broadest range of themes—music, laughter, nostalgia, evil, irony and death. In this volume, a distinguished group of philosophers and historians turn their attention to the essay on forgiveness for which Jankélévitch is best known. Cast into high relief by the horrors of mid-twentieth century European history, the questions raised herein retain a moral urgency undiminished by time and no less of relevance today.