Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question - Paperback

by Peter Atterton (Editor), Tamra Wright (Editor)

Explores Levinas's approach to animal ethics from a range of perspectives.

This is the first volume of primary and secondary source material dedicated solely to the animal question in Levinas. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including the recent discovery and digitization of the original French recording of an interview with Levinas that took place in 1986, it seeks to give fresh impetus to the debate surrounding the moral status of animals in Levinas's work. The book offers ten essays by leading scholars, along with a general introduction that places Levinas's philosophy in the context of the growing field of animal ethics. The aim of the volume is to encourage dialogue on how we can extend Levinas's ethics beyond its traditional human confines and to spur further research on the opportunities and challenges it raises.

Author Biography

Peter Atterton is Professor of Philosophy at San Diego State University. He is the coeditor (with Matthew Calarco) of Radicalizing Levinas, also published by SUNY Press. Tamra Wright is Director of Academic Studies at the London School of Jewish Studies and the author of The Twilight of Jewish Philosophy: Emmanuel Levinas' Ethical Hermeneutics.