Ethics, Exegesis and Philosophy
Interpretation after Levinas

This book expands upon Levinas' work to explore broader questions of interpretation in ethical thinking.

Richard A. Cohen (Author)

9780521047166, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 November 2007

372 pages
21.5 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.492 kg

'… the collection stands as, and can indeed be recommended as, a state-of-the-art reader in the interpretation and criticism of one of the foremost moral philosophers in the Continental tradition.' The Heythrop Journal

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 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'.

Introduction: philosophy as ethical exegesis
Part I. Exceeding Phenomenology: 1. Bergson and the emergence of an ecological age
2. Science: phenomenology, intuition and philosophy
3. The good work of Edmund Husserl
4. Better than a questionable Heidegger
Part II. Good and Evil: 5. Alterity and alteration: development of an opus
6. Maternal body/maternal psyche: contra psychoanalytic philosophy
7. Humanism and the rights of exegesis
8. What good is the Holocaust? On suffering and evil
9. Ricoeur and the lure of self-esteem
10. In conclusion
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of religion [HRAB]