Phenomenology and Theology (4N03)
Winter 2010

TEXT PREPARATION 3

Assignment due in class on March 17 from all who have not completed a Text Preparation*

*Since part of the value of the text preparation assignment is that it will prepare you to be an active participant in tutorial and in class, it may only be submitted in class on the day it is due.  If you have to miss that day's class, please contact me to make alternate arrangements.

Based on your reading of: 

Levinas, Ethics and Infinity. Conversations with Philippe Nemo (1982), trans. Richard A. Cohen: 21-25, 113-22

Levinas, "Revelation in the Jewish Tradition" (1977): 141-47, 148-50.

please address the questions below in 3-4 well-written paragraphs (spanning about 3 pages). Since this is your first reading of this text, and since we have not yet discussed it in class, you are not being asked to supply definitive answers but preliminary, thoughtful responses based on close attention to the text. Your answers may also include 1-2 important questions raised by your reading for further discussion. 

1. What sort of importance does Levinas accord, for the philosophy that he has developed, to the biblical tradition? (one paragraph)

2. How does Levinas characterize "revelation"? (2-3 paragraphs)

Although your answers should be centered on the above-referenced readings, and it is possible to address the questions by looking exclusively at these selections, if you find it helpful to refer to any other text by Levinas in support of your answer, feel free to do so.


As you did for the Text Summary assignment, in preparing this assignment please use in-text parenthetical page references.  

Your assignment should be printed double-spaced and with one-inch margins, using a 10-12-point font.  Please number and staple the pages you hand in. 

Please keep a copy of your assignment to refer to in our class discussion.

 

 

distributed/posted March 11, 2010