Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas, 1983-1994: 1983-1994

Index

169 169 Index Note: Footnotes are indicated by n following a page number. Aaron, 35 Abba, Rabbi Hiyya b., 136 Abbahu, Rabbi, 139 Abel, 133–35 Abraham, 123 Adam, 77, 81, 114, 126, 135 Adorno, Theodor, 92 agnosticism, 72, 74–76, 84–85, 87 Akiba, Rabbi, 29–30, 137, 141 Alliance Israélite Universelle, 53 Alterity and Transcendence (Levinas), 79 “Amour et révélation” (Levinas), 48 anti-Semitism, 16, 31–32, 44, 52, 53 Aquinas, Thomas, 7, 75 Arendt, Hannah, 51 Aristotle, 7, 92 Ark of the Covenant, 139 Armenia, 93 art, and death, 89 atheism, 72, 74, 85, 87 atomic weapons, 19, 99 atonement, 150–54 Augustine, Saint, 7, 86 Auschwitz, xiin, 8, 32, 99 Azariah, Rabbi Eleazar b., 137, 138 Baal Shem Tov, 146 Bach, Johann Sebastian, Et expecto, 80 Balthazar, Hans Urs von, xii, 13 Beethoven, Ludwig van, Ninth Symphony, 80 Begin, Menachem, 55 being, 42–50; “event of being,” 43, 86, 102; “otherwise than being,” 43–44, 47, 86, 94, 96. See also ontology Ben Patura, 29–30 Bergson, Henri, xi, 8, 27–28, 38, 46, 86, 93–95, 103; Time and Free Will, 93 Bernheim, Rabbi Gilles, 142n biblical interpretation, 15. See also Jewish commentary, Levinas’s Blanchot, Maurice, 51; Aminadab, 57 Brahms, Johannes, First Symphony, 80 Buber, Martin, 14–15, 99 Buddhism, 69 Cain, 127, 133–35 Cambodia, 80, 93, 99 capital punishment. See death penalty Carmelite nuns, 31–32 Cassin, René, 155 Catholic Church, 19 Celan, Paul, 62 Cheng, Anne, 50 China, 93 Chinese philosophy, 42, 50 Christianity: on death, 69; and forgiveness, 138, 155–57; and hostage, 24; Judaism and, xvi, 13–14; Levinas’s attitude toward, 6, 33; and Levinas’s 170 Index thought, xii, 5, 24, 33, 49–50; and philosophy, 7 Clément, Olivier, 6 cogito, 56 Communism, 19–21 Confucius, 42, 50 culpability, 58, 79 Daniel, 32 Dante Alighieri, 38 Dao, 42 Dasein, 2 David, 136 death: and atonement, 129–30; concept of, 71–72; ethics and, 90; faith and, 69–72; as fundamental question, 48, 69–70, 75, 89; impenetrability of, 69–74, 83–84; Judaism and, 60, 68; Levinas on, 26–27, 70–72, 75; Malraux and, 71–84, 88–90; and nothingness, 26–27, 70–71, 75; objectivity of, 71–72; “otherwise than being” and, 44; religions and, 69–71; and revelation, 71–74, 83–84. See also dying for “Death and Time” (Levinas), 72 death penalty, 130, 137, 141 Decourtray, Albert, 19, 19n De Gaulle, Charles, 7 Derrida, Jacques, 3, 45, 97–98; “Adieu,” xiv, 3, 108–09; “Violence and Metaphysics,” xiv Descartes, René, 38, 42, 46, 50, 95, 99 desire, 103 Deuteronomy, 140 Difficult Freedom (Levinas), 14 Discovering Existence with Husserl (Levinas), 46 disinterestedness, 17–18, 22 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 8; The Brothers Karamazov, 146–47 drash (symbolic meaning), 131 Dumas, Jean-Louis, 46 duration, 94, 103 dying for, 5–6, 24–25, 90. See also sacrifice École normale israélite orientale (ENIO), 1 Eden, 81 Eichmann, Adolf, 137, 141 Elijah, 158 Elkaïm-Sartre, Arlette, 62 Enlightenment, 94 Entre Nous (Levinas), 9, 87 epiphany, 46–47, 78–84, 99, 104 Eros: and exteriority, 102; and the future, 29; and intersubjectivity, 101–02. See also love Esther, 5, 24, 25 ethics: Chinese, 42, 50; criticism of, 17–18; and death, 90; face of the other and, 80; as first philosophy, 3, 51, 56, 79, 88, 94, 98, 108; and God, 32–33, 84–85; and hostage, 23–24; Judaism and, 60–61; Levinas’s notion of, xi, 32–33, 51, 86; Ricoeur and, 4–5; sacrifice and, 9; temporality and, 8 Eve, 81, 126, 135 event of being, 43, 86, 102 evil, 134–35, 143–47, 154 Existence and Existents (Levinas), 101 Exodus, book of, 127 exteriority, 100–01 face of the other: defined, 47–48; desire and, 103; epiphany of, 47, 78–80, 99, 104; ethics and, 80; and exteriority, 100; God and, 33–34, 85, 86; justice and, 30; the nature of seeing, 33–34; philosophy and, 103; and transcendence, 82, 104–05 faith: agnosticism and, 74–75; and death, 69–72 feelings, 29, 91 feminine, the, 29, 48–50 Feuerbach, Ludwig, 97 Finkielkraut, Alain, 4 folly, opposition to, 41–42 forgiveness, xv–xvi; Christianity and, 138, 155–57; in Hebrew, 118–19; Judaism and, 116–19, Index 171 123–24, 126–31, 149–61; justice and, 155, 161; questions concerning, 142; Shoah and, 149...