Emmanuel Lévinas: stages of life and thought

Abstract

The thought of E. Lévinas is extremely complex. The author of this article has attempted to highlight the milestones in the Hebrew philosopher’s intellectual-biographical history, taking in consideration numerous texts by Lévinas, who, with certain shyness as all along his life, has scarcely spoken about himself. In this respect, some of the interviews given by the Lithuanian thinker are precious but insufficient; hence it was necessary to quote from some of his non-autobiographical works where, in a concise way, the intentions of his though always linked to his own life can be seen. The present article has the nature of a presentation and an introduction to E. Lévinas’ thought, without intending to exhaust the theme. The author is conscious of the difficulty he faces in writing about this subject. For this reason, he has preferred to quote from texts rather than to make great theoretical dissertations on the Lithuanian philosopher’s thought.