Do not ignore: Emmanuel Levinas

Emmanuel Levinas was a young and brilliant student of philosophy when he discovered that all the theories he had eagerly studied ceased to be relevant overnight: Martin Heidegger, his revered teacher, joined the Nazi Party, and Levinas was imprisoned in a labor camp. There he found himself writing a new philosophy that opposes that of his teacher and insists on adhering to compassion in a world filled with hatred.

In the fourth episode of “Muses” Maya Kosover turns to Levinas’ wartime notebooks and to the moment of the birth of the philosophical revolution he brought about.

Credits:

The quote from the book “Ethics and Infinity” courtesy of Magnes Publishing

The quotes from the book “Difficult Freedom” courtesy of Resling Publishing

Lithuania, Kaunas, distribution of firewood in the ghetto, June 1943

Lithuania, Kaunas, Jews with their possessions on the street in the ghetto, before deportation

Lithuania, Kaunas, people on the ghetto’s Dawru Street, November 1943

Courtesy of Yad Vashem, Photo Archive, Jerusalem

Emmanuel Levinas’ dedication of the book De l’Existence à l’existant (Paris, 1947) to his teacher from Kovno, Prof Moshe Schwabe, in Gershom Sholem’s archives, National Library, Courtesy of David Hansel

German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) c. 1933 (Corbis via Getty Images)

Emmanuel Levinas à Davos en 1929: Par Amalia le lundi 26 janvier 2009

Emmanuel Levinas avec son ami Maurice Blanchot: Par Amalia le lundi 26 janvier 2009

Emmanuel Levinas à Strasbourg en 1928: Par Amalia le lundi 26 janvier 2009

German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) c. 1933 (Corbis via Getty Images)

Old Postcard (1912). Collection Markus Wolter

Photograph of Martin Heidegger by Willy Pragher of Freiburg im Breisgau

Photograph Emmanuel Levinas by Bracha L. Ettinger

Photograph of Edmund Husserl by Mondadori Portfolio