Levinas, Phenomenology, and Ethics

Gary Sauer-Thompson, over at Philosophical Conversations, has written up a series of posts on the thought of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas is an important figure in Heideggerian phenomenology particularly because of his phenomenology of ethics, a topic that Heidegger consciously never addressed. By examining our encounter with the Other and their particular mode of appearing, Levinas proposed an 'ethics as first philosophy,' eschewing the Cartesian emphasis on epistemology and the (early) Heideggerian emphasis on ontology. It is a fascinating view that deserves examination. Take a look.