Abstract
Detailed exposition of the nine layers of signification of human mortality according to Emmanuel Levinas’s phenomenological and ethical account of the meaning and role of death for the embodied human subject and its relations to other persons. Critical contrast to Martin Heidegger’s alternative and hitherto more influential phenomenological-ontological conception, elaborated in Being and Time (1927), of mortality as Dasein’s anxious and revelatory being-toward-death.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Camus A. (1956). The Rebel, trans Anthony Bower (pp. 285–286). Alfred A. Knoft, New York
Cohen, R. A. (1994). Derrida’s mal(reading) of Levinas (ch. 14). In Elevations: The Height of the good in Rosenzweig and Levinas (pp. 305–321). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cohen R.A. (2003). Book review. International Studies in Philosophy, XXXXV/2, 154–161
Frankl, V. (1959). From death-camp to existentialism, trans. Ilse Lasch (p. 66). Boston: Beacon Press.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time, trans. John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. New York: Harper and Row.
Hyde M.J. (2001). The call of conscience: Heidegger and Levinas, rhetoric and the euthanasia debate. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia
Keenam D.K. (1999). Death and responsibility: The “work” of Levinas. State University of New York, Albany
Kisiel, T. (2002). From intuition to understanding: On Heidegger’s transposition of Husserl’s phenomenology. In Thedore Kisiel, Heidegger’s way of thought (p. 175). New York: Continuum.
Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity, trans. Alphonso Lingis. pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Levinas, E. (1987). Time and the other and additional essays, trans. richard A. Cohen. Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press.
Levinas, E. (1998). “Dying for ...” In Entre nous, trans. Michael B. Smith (pp. 207–217). New York: Columbia University Press.
Levinas, E. (1999a). The philospher and death. In E. Levinas, Atterity and transcendence, trans. Michael B. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press.
Levinas, E. (1999b). Violence of the face. In E. Levinas, Alterity and transcendence, trans. Michael B. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press.
Levinas, E. (2000). God, death, and time, trans. Bettina Bargo. In Jacques Rolland (Ed.), Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Levinas, E. (2003). On escape, trans. Bettina Bargo. Stanford: Stanford Univesity Press.
Spinoza, B. (1992). The ethics, trans. Samuel Shirley. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Strauss L. (1989). An introduction to Heidggerian existentialism. In: Thomas L. Pangle (eds) The rebirth of classical political rationalism: An introduction to the thought of Leo Strauss (p. 37, p. 29). University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
An earlier version of this paper, relating Levinas to Spinoza rather than to Heidegger, entitled “Levinas: Thinking Least about Death—Contra Spinoza,” was presented on January 19, 2006, at an international centennial conference on Levinas held at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. The present paper was delivered as a lecture at St. John’s College, Sante Fe, New Mexico, on January 27, 2006.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cohen, R.A. Levinas: thinking least about death—contra heidegger. Int J Philos Relig 60, 21–39 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-006-9101-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-006-9101-x