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'''Emmanuel Lévinas''' ([[January 12]], [[1906]] - [[December 25]], [[1995]]) was a [[Jew]]ish [[philosopher]] [[born ]] in [[Kovno]], [[Lithuania]], who moved to [[France]], where he wrote most of his works. In his youth he had received a traditional [[Jewish ]] education, and in his later years was introduced to the [[Talmud]] by the enigmatic "[[Monsieur Chouchani]]". Levinas became a naturalized [[French ]] [[citizen ]] in [[1930]].

Levinas was deeply influenced by [[Edmund Husserl]] & [[Martin Heidegger]], whom he met at the [[university ]] of [[Freiburg]], as well as by [[Judaism|Jewish religion]]. He was one of the first intellectuals to introduce to France the [[work ]] of [[Heidegger ]] and [[Husserl]], producing both translations of their work (e.g., Husserl's ''[[Cartesian ]] Meditations'') and original [[philosophical ]] tracts.

After the war, Levinas became a leading thinker in France, emerging from the circle of intellectuals surrounding [[Jean Wahl]]. His work is based on the [[ethics]] of [[Other|the Other]] or, in Levinas' [[terms]], he argues "ethics as first [[philosophy]]." For Levinas, the [[Other ]] is not knowable and cannot be made into an [[object ]] of the [[self]], as is done by traditional [[metaphysics]] (called [[ontology ]] by Levinas). Levinas prefers to [[think ]] of philosophy as the '[[knowledge ]] of [[love]]' rather than the love of knowledge. In his arrangement, ethics become an entity independent of [[subjectivity ]] to the point where [[ethical ]] [[responsibility ]] is integral to the [[subject]]; because of this, an ethics of responsibility precedes any '[[objective ]] searching after [[truth]]'. Levinas derives the primacy of his ethics from the [[experience ]] of the [[encounter ]] with the Other. For Levinas, the [[face-to-face]] encounter with [[another ]] [[human ]] [[being ]] is a privileged phenomenon in which the other person's proximity and distance are both strongly felt. Upon the revelation of the face a person's first [[natural ]] [[desire ]] is to [[murder ]] the Other. At the same [[time]], the revelation of the face forces the immediate [[recognition ]] of one's inability to do so. One must instantly recognize the inviolability and [[autonomy ]] of the Other. One must then [[place ]] him or herself in the [[position ]] of a student, and the Other is recognized as a teacher. Ultimately, [[morality ]] is recognized through one's relation to the Other.

Among the many works of Levinas, key [[texts ]] include ''Totalité et infini: essai sur l'extériorité'' (1961) and ''Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'[[essence]]'' (1974). Both works have been translated into [[English ]] by the American philosopher [[Alphonso Lingis]].

In Levinas's later [[thought ]] following "[[Totality ]] and Infinity", he argued that our responsiblity for-the-other was already rooted within our [[subjective ]] [[constitution]]. It should be noted that the first line of the preface of this book is [paraphrase] "it is of the utmost importance to [[know ]] whether or not we are duped by morality." This can be seen most clearly in his later account of recurrence (chapter 4 from "Otherwise Than Being"). Therein Levinas maintained that subjectivity was formed in and through our subjected-ness to the other. In this way, his effort was not to move away from traditional attempts to locate the other within subjectivity (this he agrees with), so much as his view was that subjectivity was primordially ethical and not [[theoretical]]. That is to say, our responsibility for-the-other was not a derivative feature of our subjectivity; instead, obligation founds our subjective being-in-the-[[world ]] by giving it a meaningful direction and orientation. Levinas's [[thesis ]] "ethics is first philosophy", then, means that the traditional philosophical pursuit of knowledge is but a secondary feature of a more basic ethical [[duty ]] to-the-other.