Language:
English
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Philosophy Today
Angaben zur Quelle:
43,2 (1999) 176-183
Keywords:
Lévinas, Emmanuel
;
Holocaust (Jewish theology)
;
Good and evil Religious aspects
;
Judaism
;
Good and evil Philosophy
;
Suffering
;
Jewish philosophy 1945-
Abstract:
A paper presented at a conference on "Ethics after the Holocaust", University of Oregon, May 1996. On the basis of three articles by Emmanuel Levinas, written between 1978-86, presents the French Jewish philosopher's understanding of suffering, ethics, and religion after the Holocaust. The only sense that can be made of evil and suffering is to relate to the suffering of others with compassion. This empathy is the "new modality of faith today". A vast responsibility of Jews, of the State of Israel, and of all the nations is what can keep humans human. Such a mature ethics derives from a mature religion that, even if God is silent or absent, mandates responsibility for the Other. Levinas stresses that we should act without expectation of reward or miracles. He interprets the rabbinic phrase "loving Torah more than God" to mean that, after the Holocaust, Jews, indeed all people, must love the work of morality and justice even more, apparently, than does God. Theodicy, trying to explain the suffering of others, is irreligious and immoral.
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