Ethics and Infinity: Conversations with Philippe Nemo

An exceptionally lucid series of interviews with one of the most central, misunderstood and neglected thinkers of the 20th C. If you are looking to take a quick dip in the work of Levinas (something that may not be possible) I would council you to pick this up, it is the most easily accesible book to attempt a (cursory) look at some of Levinas' key points. The questions are interesting and (more importantly) not trivial... Levinas's responses are succint but also thorough and searching. I found this much more rewarding and illuminating than some of his more weighty tomage. Good for recovering academics, practicing theorists, intellectual dilletantes and anyone else interested in adopting an ethically based philosophy that can stand up and go toe to toe with all those wily postmodernists with their impenetrable and convoluted jargon of hubris...

Emmanuel Levinas' books and articles are famously difficult reading, both because of their depth and because their themes, proposals and obessions manage to be breathtakingly against the grain of modernity and, simultaneously, postmodernity. This little book shows Levinas to be not only a great philosopher but also a good one--that is, an author genuinely concerned for his audience. In these transcribed interviews first broadcast on Radio-France, we meet Levinas the generous conversation partner who engages each question in a way that makes fresh understanding possible. Overhearing this conversation is the shortest route to a basic orientation to this wonderfully disorienting thinker.

The influence of Levinas on Contemporary thought cannot be under-estimated. Many of the subtle and overt nuances in Derrida, Nancy, Deleuze and, on this side of the Atlantic, Lingis and Caputo, derive from Levinasian insights. Indeed, the French reverence for difference and alterity has its origin in the phenomenological findings of Levinas.With Levinas comes a dramatic shift from the Heideggarian cum Greek privilege of ontology. As levinas suggests, prior to any investigation of Being we first encounter the Other. And it is this encounter with the other that commands me - a command whose first words are 'Thou shalt not kill'. Thus it is ethics that is first philosophy.This description, its reasons and implications, are many and complex. However, this wonderful little book gives a breadth and clarity that should prove invaluable to the scholar and dilettante alike. Nemo's questions are poignant and Levinas' responses are clear, precise and exhibit a genuine gentility and articulateness that is most apreciated in philosophical writings.In addition this book is a wonderful accompaniment to Levinas' two main texts: Totality and Infinity and Otherwise than Being.

Levinas is one of the finest thinkers to step out of philosophy since Soren Kierkegaard. With this book and his interviews with Nemo, the reader can gain a basic understanding that will urge (h)er further along the trace that Levinas leaves in the history of thought. Read this book, and be drawn into thinking of the Other.

A easier read than most of Levinas' books, Nemo's interview offers a brief but rich overview of the French-Jewish philosopher's work. Conversations range from the influence of Husserl and Heidegger on Levinas to Levinas' thoughts on being, being human, and God. Should serve as a wonderful introduction to those unfamiliar with one of the more important humanist thinkers of the 20th century.