Emmanuel Levinas on the Priority of Ethics: Putting Ethics First ...

Prologue Letting Levinas Wake Us Up

To think is no longer to contemplate but to commit oneself, to be engulfed by that which one thinks, to be involved.

—Levinas, “Is Ontology Fundamental?”

1. Why This Book Worried Me

I found myself worrying, as I wrote this book, that its point became less clear the harder I tried to explain it. I imagine that most writers experience this worry, but I found it particularly worrisome.

First, one of my goals is to be especially clear. Emmanuel Levinas’s writings are notoriously difficult, riddled with quasi-technical terms, rhetorical flourishes, and deliberately paradoxical turns of phrase. Many commentaries borrow his terminology without making much of an effort to paraphrase it, so that they are only marginally more accessible than Levinas himself, despite their claims to clarify him. I do not necessarily mind this obscurity, but I found it alienating when I first read Levinas. I recall feeling as if I had discovered someone whose work seemed vital yet impenetrable, and I remember seeking out literature on him with uncharacteristic desperation.