An-Archy and Justice

Reviews / Votes

Professor Simmons gives a clear and precise account of the development of Levinas's complex and challenging ethical thought, from Totality and Infinity to Otherwise than Being. This is but a prelude, however, to a masterful exploration of the relationship of Levinas's theory of ethics to the practice of politics. Here Simmons illustrates how Levinas's anarchical politics has much to teach us about the tyranny of a politics practiced for its own sake and about a culture in which ego dominates political discourse. An-Archy and Justice is an important addition to our understanding of Levinas, as well as the politics of our age. -- Cecil Eubanks, Louisiana State University Simmons provides a reading of Levinas that is both critical of and compatible with the politics with which we are already familiar; rooting our agency and our policies in the Other will renew our approach to ethical and political activity. * Dialogue * The value of this book is that in it an introduction to the thought of Levinas and this thought's potential import for politics appear together, and flow into each other. -- Jeffrey Dudiak, The King's University College It is a pleasure to read such a lucid presentation of Levinas. That Simmons writes so clearly about Levinas while at the same time developing the implications of his thought for politics is striking. Seldom have I seen clarity of presentation so gracefully combined with intellectual rigor. -- C. Fred Alford, University of Maryland, College Park; author of Levinas, The Frankfurt School, and Psychoanalysis