Emmanuel Levinas: the genealogy of ethics

First Published in 2004. 'Emmanuel Levinas's thought can make us tremble' exclaims Jacques Derrida, one of the increasing number of writers in many different fields through whose works reverberate shock waves transmitted by the prophetic words of this eminent contemporary philosopher. John Llewelyn's exemplary study hears in Levinas's words an argument to the effect that is ethics is in crisis today it is because we fail to acknowledge that there is crisis in ethics from all time. After Auschwitz, he asks, dare we leave unheeded what Levinas has to say?