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Thinkers

Emmanuel Levinas

Phenomenological · Europe · 1906 to 1995

French thinker, born in Lithuania. He held that ethics begins when another person's face makes a demand on us, before any theory of what exists.

What it is

Emmanuel Levinas was a French-Jewish philosopher and Talmudic commentator, born in Lithuania in the early twentieth century and died in 1995. His main project was to argue that the first question of philosophy is ethics, the relation to another person, and not the question of what being is.

He studied with Husserl and Heidegger and used their phenomenological method, but he criticised them for putting ontology first. In their place he described the experience of meeting another person, which he held gives rise to a responsibility for them before any theory or choice.

The main ideas

  • Ethics as first philosophy. Ethics, the relation to the other person, comes before metaphysics and before the study of being.
  • The face of the other. In meeting another person, I am addressed by a face that makes a claim on me and calls me to answer, before I decide anything.
  • Responsibility before choice. My responsibility for others is not something I take on by a decision. It precedes my freedom.
  • Against totality. Philosophies that try to bring everything into one whole, a totality, overlook what is irreducibly other, and he sets the infinite against it.

What it looks like in practice

Picture someone on a crowded street who sees a stranger collapse and feels at once that they have to do something, before they think about reasons. Levinas treats that immediate sense of being claimed as the root of ethics, and not an add-on to a prior theory of what is. This is an illustration of the idea, not a quotation.

Books and moments

  • Totality and Infinity (1961) is his first major work, on the other and the infinite.
  • Otherwise than Being (1974) is his second major work, on responsibility and language.
  • His Talmudic readings show his Jewish thought alongside his philosophy.

Questions and criticism

  • Is this an ethical theory? He says he is describing an encounter, not formulating a theory, and readers ask whether a description of this kind can guide action.
  • What about justice for many? A claim by each person raises the question of how to deal fairly with many, and he addressed this under the idea of the third party.
  • Does he overstate responsibility? An infinite responsibility can seem impossible to live out, and critics ask whether it is a coherent demand.

Close neighbours

He learned phenomenology from Husserl and Heidegger and turned it towards ethics. The pages on Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty show the tradition he worked within.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 9 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Who they connect to

Influenced

  • Enrique Dussel · Dussel built his philosophy of liberation on Levinas' idea of the Other.
  • Jacques Derrida · He wrote a well-known essay on Levinas and took from him the stress on the other.

Influenced by

  • Edmund Husserl · Levinas studied under Husserl and introduced his work to French readers.
  • Martin Heidegger · Levinas learned from Heidegger's Being and Time before turning against its priority of being.
  • Plato · Levinas took the idea of a good beyond being from Plato's Republic.

Reacted against

  • Martin Heidegger · Levinas held that ethics comes before the question of being.

Runs parallel to

  • Simone Weil · Both put obligation to the afflicted before rights or theories. (scholars disagree about this link)

Other Phenomenological thinkers

Sources we used

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