Face to Face with Levinas

Preface

Preface Levinas has written his own brief intellectual bibliography, "Signature ."! His biography, complete up to 1981, can be found in Emmanuel Levinas by Roger Burggraeve.:/ The present collection, however, does not require any previous knowledge of Levinas. Indeed, the interview with Levinas included in it, conducted by Richard Kearney, is an excellent summary review of his philosophy. The authors who have contributed to this collection know Levinas' work thoroughly; their articles come from many years' meditation upon it. Much is at stake in such meditations and in their fruits. Taking up philosophy's central tradition, Levinas raises anew the question of the limits and nature of knowledge, the question of the status of thought itself. What is unique about Levinas' answer is that it binds thought not in the name of the true, but in the name of the good. Levinas does not demand that thought be more rigorous or more in tune with being, but that it be more thoughtful; heedful of the social, and therefore moral, conditions that govern it. Levinas demands that thought be humble. Levinas' response to the end of metaphysics is not Nietzsche's "pandemonium of free spirits:' but a call to maturation. Reasonableness requires greater responsibilities than were dreamed of by ratio. Levinas insists on these greater responsibilities, within and beyond reason. The articles in this collection are challenged by this profound insistence, seduced by its force, yet not ready to succumb without protest. In this intellectual hesitation, they articulate a critical confrontation . Bound yet free, they are deep responses. Putting this collection together has required much generosity from many people. I am especially grateful to all the contributors VII VIII Preface who have so generously given of their thought, and also to the translators who have contributed their time and effort to a trying task. I would like to thank Carol Bresnock and Diane Brunamonti of Penn State at Scranton for typing many parts of the manuscript. I would like to thank Alphonso Lingis and Edith Wyschogrod, who from the start - and all along -- have encouraged me to do this project . The entire collection is a gift of gratitude for Levinas' work, which inspires it throughout. Notes Richard A. Cohen Owings Mills, MD 1. Levinas, "Signature.:' ed. and annotated by Adriaan Peperzak, trans. M.E. Petrisko, Research in Phenomenology VIII, 1978, 175-189. 2. Roger Burggraeve, Emmal1uel Levinas, The Center for Metaphysics and Philosophy of God, Institute of Philosophy, Kardinaal Mercierplein 2, 3000, Louvain, Bergium, 1982. ...