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Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature

Emmanuel Levinas: The Genealogy of Ethics

John Llewelyn
Warwick Studies in European Philosophy

"This is the most important full length study of Levinas in any language"
Robert Bernasconi, Memphis State University

"Emmanuel Levinas must now be judged to be one of the most influential figures in contemporary Continental philosophy. I can think of no better guide than John Llewelyn to lead us through the thickets of Levinas's prose"
Simon Critchley, University of Essex

"Emmanuel Levinas's thought can make us tremble", exclaims Jacques Derrida, one of the increasing number of writers in many different fields through whose works reverberate shock waves transmitted by the prophetic words of this eminent contemporary philosopher.

John Llewelyn's exemplary study hears in Levinas's words an argument to the effect that if ethics is in crisis today it is because we fail to acknowledge that there is a crisis in ethics from all time. After Auschwitz, he asks, dare we leave unheeded what Levinas has to say?

John Llewelyn, following retirement from the University of Edinburgh, has been visiting professor at Loyola University of Chicago and Memphis State University.