Levinas’s Politics
LEVINAS’S POLITICS
JUSTICE, MERCY, UNIVERSALITY
Annabel Herzog
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Haney Foundation Series
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series, established in 1961 with the generous support of Dr. John Louis Haney
Copyright © 2020 University of Pennsylvania Press
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Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
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University of Pennsylvania Press
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Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Herzog, Annabel, author.
Title: Levinas’s politics : justice, mercy, universality / Annabel Herzog.
Other titles: Haney Foundation series.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2020] | Series: Haney Foundation series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019031232 | ISBN 9780812251975 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Lévinas, Emmanuel—Political and social views. | Lévinas, Emmanuel—Ethics. | Talmud—Political aspects. | Political ethics—Philosophy. | Jewish ethics.
Classification: LCC B2430.L484 H47 2020 | DDC 320.092—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019031232
For my children
Mon rapport au Talmud est donc un rapport européen, vous comprenez, c’est très important.
And so, my relationship to the Talmud remains very European; please understand, it is very important.
—E. Levinas
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
CONTENTS
Chapter 1. The Talmudic Readings: From Literature to Politics
Chapter 2. Levinas’s Conception of Politics in the Talmudic Readings
Chapter 3. Levinas’s Critique of Social “Indifference”
Chapter 4. On the Necessity of Political Violence
Chapter 7. Levinas and the Modern State of Israel
Chapter 8. Hegelian Dialectics and the Question of Messianism
Conclusion. Levinas’s Concept of Laïcité
ABBREVIATIONS
| A and A’ | Derrida, J. Adieu à Emmanuel Lévinas. Paris: Galilée, 1997. Trans. P. A. Brault and M. Naas, Adieu to Emmanuel Levinas (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1999). |
| ADV and BTV | Levinas, E. L’Au-delà du verset: Lectures et discours talmudiques. Paris: Minuit, 1982. Trans. G. D. Mole, Beyond the Verse: Talmudic Readings and Lectures (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994). |
| AE and OB | Levinas, E. Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1990. Trans. A. Lingis, Otherwise than Being, or Beyond Essence (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1998). |
| AHN and ITN | Levinas, E. A l’heure des nations. Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1988. Trans. M. B. Smith, In the Time of the Nations (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994). |
| AT and AT’ | Levinas, E. Altérité et transcendance. Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1995. Trans. M. B. Smith, Alterity and Transcendence (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999). |
| BPW | Levinas, E. Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings. Ed. A. T. Peperzak, S. Critchley, and R. Bernasconi (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.) |
| CDC | Levinas, E. Œuvres 1: Carnets de captivité et autres inédits. Ed. R. Calin and C. Chalier. Paris: Grasset & Fasquelle/IMEC, 2009. |
| CP | Levinas, E. Collected Philosophical Papers of Emmanuel Levinas. Trans. A. Lingis. Dordrecht: M. Nijhoff, 1987. |
| DD and OG | Levinas, E. De Dieu qui vient à l’idée. Paris: Vrin, 1998. Trans. B. Bergo, Of God Who Comes to Mind (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1998). |
| DE and OE | Levinas, E. De l’évasion. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1998. Trans. B. Bergo, On Escape (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2003). |
| DL and DF | Levinas, E. Difficile liberté. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1988. Trans. S. Hand, Difficult Freedom (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990). |
| DO | Levinas, E. De l’oblitération, entretiens avec F. Armengaud. Paris: Éditions de la Différence, 1990. |
| DSS and NTR | Levinas, E. Du sacré au saint. Paris: Minuit, 1977. Trans. A. Aronowicz, Nine Talmudic Readings (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990). |
| ECM and AVM | Derrida, J. “En ce moment même dans cet ouvrage me voici.” In Psyché: Inventions de l’autre. Paris: Editions
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