What do you think?
Rate this book
Alterity and Transcendence
This first English translation of a series of twelve essays offers a unique glimpse of Levinas defining his own place in the history of philosophy. In today's world, where religious conceptions of exalted higher powers are constantly called into question by theoretical investigation and by the powerful influence of science and technology on our understanding of the universe, has the notion of transcendence been stripped of its significance? In Levinas's incisive model, transcendence is indeed alive — not in any notion of our relationship to a mysterious, sacred realm but in the idea of our worldly, subjective relationships to others.
- GenresPhilosophyHistory
200 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1970
12 people are currently reading
302 people want to read
About the author
Emmanuel Levinas
147 books401 followersEmanuelis Levinas (later adapted to French orthography as Emmanuel Levinas) received a traditional Jewish education in Lithuania. After WWII, he studied the Talmud under the enigmatic "Monsieur Chouchani", whose influence he acknowledged only late in his life.
Levinas began his philosophical studies at Strasbourg University in 1924, where he began his lifelong friendship with the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot. In 1928, he went to Freiburg University to study phenomenology under Edmund Husserl. At Freiburg he also met Martin Heidegger. Levinas became one of the very first French intellectuals to draw attention to Heidegger and Husserl, by translating Husserl's Cartesian Meditations and by drawing on their ideas in his own philosophy, in works such as his The Theory of Intuition in Husserl’s Phenomenology, De l'Existence à l'Existant, and En Découvrant l’Existence avec Husserl et Heidegger.
According to his obituary in New York Times,[1] Levinas came to regret his enthusiasm for Heidegger, because of the latter's affinity for the Nazis. During a lecture on forgiveness, Levinas stated "One can forgive many Germans, but there are some Germans it is difficult to forgive. It is difficult to forgive Heidegger."[2]
After earning his doctorate Levinas taught at a private Jewish High School in Paris, the École Normale Israélite Orientale, eventually becoming its director. He began teaching at the University of Poitiers in 1961, at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris in 1967, and at the Sorbonne in 1973, from which he retired in 1979. He was also a Professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. In 1989 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Philosophy.
Among his most famous students is Rabbi Baruch Garzon from Tetouan (Morocco), who learnt Philosophy with Levinas at the Sorbonne and later went on to become one of the most important Rabbis of the Spanish-speaking world.
In the 1950s, Levinas emerged from the circle of intellectuals surrounding Jean Wahl as a leading French thinker. His work is based on the ethics of the Other or, in Levinas' terms, on "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 (which Lévinas called "ontology"). Lévinas prefers to think of philosophy as the "wisdom of love" rather than the love of wisdom (the literal Greek meaning of the word "philosophy"). By his lights, ethics becomes an entity independent of subjectivity to the point where ethical responsibility is integral to the subject; hence 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 irreducible relation, the epiphany, of the face-to-face, the encounter with another, is a privileged phenomenon in which the other person's proximity and distance are both strongly felt. "The Other precisely reveals himself in his alterity not in a shock negating the I, but as the primordial phenomenon of gentleness."[3]. At the same time, the revelation of the face makes a demand, this demand is before one can express, or know one's freedom, to affirm or deny.[4] One instantly recognizes the transcendence and heteronomy of the Other. Even murder fails as an attempt to take hold of this otherness.
In Levinas's later thought following "Totality and Infinity", he argued that our responsibility 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 "everyone will readily agree that it is of the highest importance to know whether we are not duped by morality."[5] This can be seen most clearly in his later account of recurrence (chapter 4 in "Otherwise Than Being"), where Levinas maintai
Levinas began his philosophical studies at Strasbourg University in 1924, where he began his lifelong friendship with the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot. In 1928, he went to Freiburg University to study phenomenology under Edmund Husserl. At Freiburg he also met Martin Heidegger. Levinas became one of the very first French intellectuals to draw attention to Heidegger and Husserl, by translating Husserl's Cartesian Meditations and by drawing on their ideas in his own philosophy, in works such as his The Theory of Intuition in Husserl’s Phenomenology, De l'Existence à l'Existant, and En Découvrant l’Existence avec Husserl et Heidegger.
According to his obituary in New York Times,[1] Levinas came to regret his enthusiasm for Heidegger, because of the latter's affinity for the Nazis. During a lecture on forgiveness, Levinas stated "One can forgive many Germans, but there are some Germans it is difficult to forgive. It is difficult to forgive Heidegger."[2]
After earning his doctorate Levinas taught at a private Jewish High School in Paris, the École Normale Israélite Orientale, eventually becoming its director. He began teaching at the University of Poitiers in 1961, at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris in 1967, and at the Sorbonne in 1973, from which he retired in 1979. He was also a Professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. In 1989 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Philosophy.
Among his most famous students is Rabbi Baruch Garzon from Tetouan (Morocco), who learnt Philosophy with Levinas at the Sorbonne and later went on to become one of the most important Rabbis of the Spanish-speaking world.
In the 1950s, Levinas emerged from the circle of intellectuals surrounding Jean Wahl as a leading French thinker. His work is based on the ethics of the Other or, in Levinas' terms, on "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 (which Lévinas called "ontology"). Lévinas prefers to think of philosophy as the "wisdom of love" rather than the love of wisdom (the literal Greek meaning of the word "philosophy"). By his lights, ethics becomes an entity independent of subjectivity to the point where ethical responsibility is integral to the subject; hence 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 irreducible relation, the epiphany, of the face-to-face, the encounter with another, is a privileged phenomenon in which the other person's proximity and distance are both strongly felt. "The Other precisely reveals himself in his alterity not in a shock negating the I, but as the primordial phenomenon of gentleness."[3]. At the same time, the revelation of the face makes a demand, this demand is before one can express, or know one's freedom, to affirm or deny.[4] One instantly recognizes the transcendence and heteronomy of the Other. Even murder fails as an attempt to take hold of this otherness.
In Levinas's later thought following "Totality and Infinity", he argued that our responsibility 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 "everyone will readily agree that it is of the highest importance to know whether we are not duped by morality."[5] This can be seen most clearly in his later account of recurrence (chapter 4 in "Otherwise Than Being"), where Levinas maintai
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 20, 2023
“Truth is only truth when it is the whole of being”. “The knowledge is at the same time a representation and a movement”. “I have the idea of the possibility in which the impossible may be sleeping”. “I have the order to answer for the life of the other”. “I think that the human consists precisely in opening oneself to the death of the other”
Librazo. Doce pedazo ensayos de los que sólo sobra uno (el de “beyond dialogue”) y de los que mis favoritos han sido “philosophy and trascendence”, “ the word I, the word you, the word God”, “the proximity of the Other” y el de “peace and proximity”. Levinas es que es el típico señor mayor viudo adorable que llevaría dos vez por semana flores a su mujer y que regalaría nutella a sus nietas. Una propuesta metafísica y ética que wow; en vez de tanta cháchara individualista este gran señor puso sobre la mesa la necesidad que tenemos de crecer en el otro y la enorme obligación que tenemos respecto a él. No hay uno sin otro y sanseacabó. Lo único que se le puede reprochar a este libro es la edición (puta universidad de Columbia es nuevo y se le han despegado páginas mejorad la edición de este librazo pedazo de yanquis) y que al llevar todo hacia la ética a veces su metafísica/ ontología parece un poco conducida. En todo caso este señor lo dijo alto y claro: el pensar por uno solo es una trampa. Somos gracias al otro, y le debemos amor y responsabilidad. Amén hermano, te la sacaste
Librazo. Doce pedazo ensayos de los que sólo sobra uno (el de “beyond dialogue”) y de los que mis favoritos han sido “philosophy and trascendence”, “ the word I, the word you, the word God”, “the proximity of the Other” y el de “peace and proximity”. Levinas es que es el típico señor mayor viudo adorable que llevaría dos vez por semana flores a su mujer y que regalaría nutella a sus nietas. Una propuesta metafísica y ética que wow; en vez de tanta cháchara individualista este gran señor puso sobre la mesa la necesidad que tenemos de crecer en el otro y la enorme obligación que tenemos respecto a él. No hay uno sin otro y sanseacabó. Lo único que se le puede reprochar a este libro es la edición (puta universidad de Columbia es nuevo y se le han despegado páginas mejorad la edición de este librazo pedazo de yanquis) y que al llevar todo hacia la ética a veces su metafísica/ ontología parece un poco conducida. En todo caso este señor lo dijo alto y claro: el pensar por uno solo es una trampa. Somos gracias al otro, y le debemos amor y responsabilidad. Amén hermano, te la sacaste
May 7, 2021
A worthwhile collection of essays and conversations of Levinas. Of special interest is the main text, "Philosophy and Transcendence," where Levinas traces the concept of transcendence through the history of philosophy, and how it bears, unspoken, the trace of the exposure to an absolute alterity.
The conversations of Levinas published in the 80's, on the themes of death and religion, are also of import for expanding Levinas' published reflection on these themes.
The collection also bears a section made of essays on peace and justice, which remains displacedly central to the engagement with Levinas' reflections.
Overall, in looking back to the history of philosophy, in conversing upon the political present, and in setting its sights upon the unforeseeable approach of the future, this collection of texts bears the power and relevance of a prayer. And, as Levinas notes at the close of the final conversation rounding out this collection, "One doesn't pray for oneself" (181). The prayer which is traced in every action, movement, and gesture of existence is undertaken, willfully or no (even prior to the powers of the conatus essendi), for the sake of, in the nameless name of, the other who is refracted in the face of every other who approaches us.
The conversations of Levinas published in the 80's, on the themes of death and religion, are also of import for expanding Levinas' published reflection on these themes.
The collection also bears a section made of essays on peace and justice, which remains displacedly central to the engagement with Levinas' reflections.
Overall, in looking back to the history of philosophy, in conversing upon the political present, and in setting its sights upon the unforeseeable approach of the future, this collection of texts bears the power and relevance of a prayer. And, as Levinas notes at the close of the final conversation rounding out this collection, "One doesn't pray for oneself" (181). The prayer which is traced in every action, movement, and gesture of existence is undertaken, willfully or no (even prior to the powers of the conatus essendi), for the sake of, in the nameless name of, the other who is refracted in the face of every other who approaches us.
July 1, 2015
Though difficult to grasp at times, Levinas's theses are interesting, and the idea that we must find transcendence within our relations with the human other, rather than a higher being, is appealing.
July 4, 2024
"Гледам Другия с очите на Третия", или книга за вечната отговорност, която имаме към към Другия - дори по отношение на собственото ни конституиране като индивиди, за нашата "его-ст". За "лудото добро", когато сме изправени пред избора дали Другия ни засяга насъщно, или избираме да подминем безучастно неговата мъка. За любовта (към ближния, но не само), която може да се редуцира до простата формула: "не, ти няма да умреш!" Другия е този, именно, който "спира тотализацията"; отговорен съм пред него, повече отколкото съм отговорен пред себе си: "Лицето ме търси и ми нарежда"; и още "това нареждаме е смисълът на Лицето". Той ме засяга, той ми дава референтна точка, от която и авторефлексията става възможна. Третия е обобщеният образ на масата, опредметяващ и тотализиращ ме; именно в прямотата на аз-ти отношението начева човешката склонност към святостта. В една "дезинтересована, лишена от всякаква похот" любов, се провиждат "следите" които Бог е оставил (Бог е говорил; от това са останали следи). В акта на Казването имаме винаги един предварителен референт, който прави този акт възможен, дори когато диалогът между двамината е вече невъзможен. Лицето на Другия е първичният "феномен". Той ми нарежда "Не убивай!"; той е този, който прави субектността възможна - до степен тази отговорност и загриженост към ближния да е винаги асиметрична, по отношение на която "аз никога не съм се издължил".
Един безкрайно хуманистичен Левинас.
Един безкрайно хуманистичен Левинас.
June 10, 2020
Señor, propone usted cosas muy interesantes, pero que podría decirlas de un modo más sencillo. Para decirme que hay que trazar una relación con el Otro me está dando usted una vuelta de que el ser es siendo sido del ser otro en tanto que la otredad de lo sido es la mismidad sida del ser y mira, podria explicarlo de un modo más ameno, la verdad. Yo propongo que antes de leer cualquier cosa de Levinas os pongais con los estudios que hace José María Aguilar López sobre este libro (se llama igual, "estudios sobre levinas: alteridad y trascendencia) que aunque sea difícil, no es TAN dificil como leer a un señoro de la fenomenología
Read
July 4, 2025honestly this is completely beyond my ability to read right now. the ideas are really interesting though.
tldr
- we have an innate responsibility to other people, and have some responsibility over their death or suffering
- the face of a person is the representation of both their unknowable-ness and that responsibility
- a lot of other things about knowledge, philosophy, and infinity that i didn't fully understand
tldr
- we have an innate responsibility to other people, and have some responsibility over their death or suffering
- the face of a person is the representation of both their unknowable-ness and that responsibility
- a lot of other things about knowledge, philosophy, and infinity that i didn't fully understand
August 18, 2023
Personalmente creo que no es un buen libro para comenzar a leer Levinas. Si bien hay un recorrido interesante de sus ideas no he podido sacarle provecho alguno. Muy posiblemente hare una segunda lectura cuando tenga sus conceptos mas claros.
November 18, 2025
I understood at least 64 percent of this. :)
Read
February 24, 2022Drops you into the middle of a series of conversations. Not a good starting point for Levinas.
December 23, 2016
Altérité et transcendance est un bon livre mais peut-être pas indiqué pour le non-initié à Lévinas : les thèmes sont repris plutôt succinctement et expliqués de façon un peu superficielle. Avant de le lire, il vaudrait mieux passer, d'abord, par Éthique et infini (un entretien avec l'auteur qui se lit très bien) et ensuite par Totalité et infini, son ouvrage majeur et plus difficile. Par contre, le format d'altérité et transcendance est plutôt intéressant car le livre se décompose en courts textes qui reprennent la pensée de Lévinas et l'appliquent ou la développent en aspects un peu plus précis ainsi qu'en dialogues avec l'auteur qui, plus vivants, résument et explicitent sa pensée (de façon, il faut se le dire, plus facilement digestible). Il y a un chapitre retraçant l'historique de la philosophie de l'infini qui aide à comprendre les références que peut faire Lévinas lorsqu'il expose, plus tard, sa pensée.
Commentaire éditorial:
Je recommande Lévinas à tout le monde sans exception aucune. Je dois avouer que la première fois que j'ai ouvert Lévinas... je n'ai rien compris ! J'ai mis des dizaines de pages de "Totalité et infini" avant de voir un peu de clarté dans cet océan de mots peints à l'encre noir. La découverte (et compréhension) de sa pensée s'est faite progressivement et avec un constant sentiment d'euphorie au fur et à mesure ou j'en réalisais la cohérence et aussi la force. Pour moi, la vraie beauté de son univers philosophique est cette démonstration que l'éthique précède toute chose, incluant le savoir et la liberté.
Je continue de penser que dans notre monde où la technologie, les évènements et l'information nous dépassent constamment, il faut consacrer encore davantage de place à la philosophie et non pas seulement l'enseigner mais aussi la pratiquer. Je vois aussi avec beaucoup de méfiance cette tendance moderne de l'hyper-individualisation en ce sens que l'individualisme est renforcé par des pratiques en culture, en commerce et en politique qui cherchent à toujours en appeler à l'individu dans ses goûts, ses biais, quelques caractéristiques, à ne pas le remettre en question, à ne pas lui proposer "autre chose", à ne pas le surprendre et surtout pas le contredire. Dans ce contexte, l'appel à l'éthique, à la bonté, la célébration de "l'autre" et du "pour l'autre", l'autre-transcendance et la philosophie du dialogue sont des notions qui deviennent encore plus importantes.
Commentaire éditorial:
Je recommande Lévinas à tout le monde sans exception aucune. Je dois avouer que la première fois que j'ai ouvert Lévinas... je n'ai rien compris ! J'ai mis des dizaines de pages de "Totalité et infini" avant de voir un peu de clarté dans cet océan de mots peints à l'encre noir. La découverte (et compréhension) de sa pensée s'est faite progressivement et avec un constant sentiment d'euphorie au fur et à mesure ou j'en réalisais la cohérence et aussi la force. Pour moi, la vraie beauté de son univers philosophique est cette démonstration que l'éthique précède toute chose, incluant le savoir et la liberté.
Je continue de penser que dans notre monde où la technologie, les évènements et l'information nous dépassent constamment, il faut consacrer encore davantage de place à la philosophie et non pas seulement l'enseigner mais aussi la pratiquer. Je vois aussi avec beaucoup de méfiance cette tendance moderne de l'hyper-individualisation en ce sens que l'individualisme est renforcé par des pratiques en culture, en commerce et en politique qui cherchent à toujours en appeler à l'individu dans ses goûts, ses biais, quelques caractéristiques, à ne pas le remettre en question, à ne pas lui proposer "autre chose", à ne pas le surprendre et surtout pas le contredire. Dans ce contexte, l'appel à l'éthique, à la bonté, la célébration de "l'autre" et du "pour l'autre", l'autre-transcendance et la philosophie du dialogue sont des notions qui deviennent encore plus importantes.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews