Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) was a Talmudist, ethicist, and continental philosopher whose thought has left a lasting imprint on contemporary philosophy and theology. His sophisticated ethical system that understands the self to be radically responsible for the Other has challenged conventional theories of selfhood, subjectivity, consciousness, ethics, metaphysics, language, and social relations. Furthermore, his ethical philosophy is beginning to find its way into psychological discourse concerning psychotherapy, human development, and definitions of selfhood.
Levinas was born in Kaunas (a.k.a. Kovno), Lithuania, in 1906 to a moderately affluent, Orthodox Jewish family. In his formative years, he was educated in traditional Hebrew school and was also heavily influenced by the work of Russian novelists such as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. In 1923, Levinas traveled to Strasbourg, France, for formal education in philosophy. Shortly after, he went to Freiburg, Germany, where he studied...
Bibliography
Bloechl, J. (Ed.). (2000). The face of the other and the trace of God: Essays on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. New York: Fordham University Press.
Burggraeve, R. (2007). The wisdom of love in the service of love: Emmanuel Levinas on justice, peace, and human rights. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
Cohen, R. (1994). Elevations: The height of the good in Rosenzweig and Levinas. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Critchley, S., & Bernasconi, R. (Eds.). (2002). The Cambridge companion to Levinas. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ford, D. (1999). Self and salvation: Being transformed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Gantt, E. E., & Williams, R. N. (Eds.). (2002). Psychology for the other: Levinas, ethics, and the practice of psychology. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Gibbs, R. (1992). Correlations in Rosenzweig and Levinas. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Kosky, J. L. (2001). Levinas and the philosophy of religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Kunz, G. (1998). The paradox of power and weakness: Levinas and an alternative paradigm for psychology. New York: State University of New York Press.
Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority (trans: Lingis, A.). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. (Original work published 1961).
Levinas, E. (1989). The Levinas reader (S. Hand, Ed. & trans.). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Levinas, E. (1990). Difficult freedom: Essays on Judaism (trans: Hand, S.). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (Original work published 1976).
Levinas, E. (1994). Nine talmudic readings (trans: Aronowicz, A.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Original work published in 1968, 1977).
Levinas, E. (1998a). Of God who comes to mind (trans: Bergo, B.). Stanford: Meridian Press. (Original work published in 1982).
Levinas, E. (1998b). Otherwise than being: Or, beyond essence (trans: Lingis, A.). Boston: M. Nijhoff. (Original work published 1974).
Malka, S. (2006). Emmanuel Levinas: His life and legacy (trans: Kigel, M. & Embree, S.). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. (Original work published 2002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Goodman, D.M. (2020). Levinas, Emmanuel. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_838
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_838
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24347-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24348-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences